Install MS-DOS w/XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter lbrty4us
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lbrty4us

Surely someone has been able to do it (6.22, separate FAT partition)
without wiping XP first (i.e., the edict that "You Must Install DOS
First, You Wretched Serf!"<g>). Anyone who can point me in a fruitful
real-world direction by thinking outside the square?

For example, perhaps even the image of an installation on another DOS
box may be pasted (with its config.sys & autoexec.bat edited to suit
the new box)?

Or perhaps dossetup.ini on the install floppy set may be copied &
hacked slightly to suit?
There must be a better workaround...

Cheers,
frank
 
It depends. If the C drive is ntfs, you can't. If C is fat32, (and windows
is on another drive) you can boot to dos floppy, 'sys' that drive, install
dos, boot to CD, recovery console, and use fixboot, and bootcfg utilities.
 
Mark said:
It depends. If the C drive is ntfs, you can't. If C is fat32, (and windows
is on another drive) you can boot to dos floppy, 'sys' that drive, install
dos, boot to CD, recovery console, and use fixboot, and bootcfg utilities.
Click to expand...


Not using MS-DOS 6.x, Mark. It can't recognize the FAT32 file system.
Now, your suggestion would work if one were to install the MS-DOS 7.x
portion of Win98, though.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
Hi Frank,

1) Do you have free space on the hard drive to install DOS, and is the
primary system (boot) partition using FAT32?

a) If both are yes, then you can use the setup option of formatting the free
space as FAT, then install using the procedure here:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_9x.htm

b) If one or both are no, then you will need partitioning software to create
free space, create the installation partition, then manage the boot (DOS
cannot boot from an NTFS partition).

Boot Managers and Partitioning programs:

BootIT NG www.terabyteunlimited.com
Partition Magic www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic
Partition Commander http://www.v-com.com/product/pc_ind.html
Ranish Partition Manager http://www.ranish.com/part/

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Hi Roger,

To clarify:

I already have GRUB installed; I provided another 510mb pri partition
in FAT-16 (not FAT-12 like the ancient box<g>) which of course has its
own (blank) MBR, and if needed (i.e., if I had a clue how<bg>) I could
even edit the partition's MBR using the free utility with BootItNG
(also have it - not installing or using it for boot mngmt). Finally, I
have a working 6.22/WFWG installation on an old box.

FWIW re Rodney's wisecrack, whole point is to get rid of the ancient
DOSbox(duh).

Does the abv open me up to some simpler, more pragmatic solution? Such
as:

1) just copying the old install to the partition & editing the GRUB
boot option to point to its boot files (unsure what GRUB may need typed
in for this, *if anything*); and/or,

2) editing the partition's MBR (if I had half a clue what to type into
it); maybe it isn't even needed<dumb look>; did we not make DOS boot
floppies for over a decade that had no MBR?

3) sumpthin else? ;-)

At least I remembered that it has to be < 512MB<brilliant look>. I
also remembered to edit the chainboot line out of GRUB since AFAIK it
doesn't apply to pre-WIN9x or non-Lx thing-o's.

ISTM what this all comes down to may be: does the sucker have to have
an MBR for GRUB (or for that matter, any boot mgr) to boot it? Does
Grub have to say anything else, or would IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS &
COMMAND.COM be automatically found by BIOS like it is from a floppy?

Only reason I'm asking before having copied the old installation &
tried it, is since both boxes have only FDD & a pokey serial port in
common I'll have to dub around a lot to copy it. Ahh, for the days of
simple LapLink!

So I hope the abv is a little more focussed for helpful replies. This
old OS is very useful to me, it's not some lark I'm on here. MS-DOS &
WFWG3.11 probably runs like a raped ape @ 2+ghz, or maybe even locks up
sometimes tripping over itself. ;-) But 1st things 1st...I'll deal
with the follow-on issues (if any) elsewhere.
Thx any additional insight.

Rdgs,
Frank
 
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