Make a partition in unit C:

[Guest]

I have two hard drives. One with 3.73GB (C with 713MB free space, with
Windows XP Pro SP2. Another with 3.2GB (D with 1.39GB free space, where I
store all my files, software, etc.

I'd like to install MS-DOS in unit C: to be able to play old DOS games.

Is it possible to create a partition in disk C: without having to format it?
How can I do it, if possible? I already found a tutorial in Windows Support
on how to do it, but I'm afraid having to format and install Windows XP again.

Thank you,
Paulo.

 

[Pennywise]

I have two hard drives. One with 3.73GB (C with 713MB free space, with
Windows XP Pro SP2. Another with 3.2GB (D with 1.39GB free space, where I
store all my files, software, etc.

I'd like to install MS-DOS in unit C: to be able to play old DOS games.

Just use DosBox http://tinyurl.com/vltjs

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have two hard drives. One with 3.73GB (C with 713MB free space, with
Windows XP Pro SP2. Another with 3.2GB (D with 1.39GB free space, where I
store all my files, software, etc.

I'd like to install MS-DOS in unit C: to be able to play old DOS games.

Is it possible to create a partition in disk C: without having to format it?
How can I do it, if possible? I already found a tutorial in Windows Support
on how to do it, but I'm afraid having to format and install Windows XP again.

Thank you,
Paulo.

You have two options:
a) Create a FAT16 partition, using a suitable non-destructive
partition manager, then use the WinXP boot manager to boot
into this partition.
b) Install Virtual PC, then use it to create a DOS boot. I believe
that Virtual PC is now free - have a look here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

Option a) is not trivial. It depends on the boot partition being
FAT32 and it requires you to back up your whole installation
unless you're prepared to wear the risk of something going
wrong.

An overall remark: Using a 4 GByte disk for WinXP is very,
very tight, and having just 700 MBytes of free disk space means
that you will soon run out of space. Here is an alternative and
risk-free approach to your question, although it requires you
to become familiar with a few new things.
1. Buy an 80 GByte disk. They cost very little.
2. Make a 15 GByte active primary partition on it.
3. Make a 65 GByte data drive on it.
4. Clone your existing drive C: to this partition. Test it.
5. Clone your data disk the the 65 GByte data drive.
6. Reformat your old drive C: and use it for your boot
manager and for DOS.

This approach would give you oodles of free disk space.
Post again if you intend to adopt this plan. Unless you are
familiar with boot managers and with the cloning process,
you may need some further instructions.

 

[Guest]

"Yes"
I'd like to hear how to use the small drive as a boot manager??

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have two hard drives. One with 3.73GB (C with 713MB free space,
with Windows XP Pro SP2. Another with 3.2GB (D with 1.39GB free
space, where I store all my files, software, etc.

I'd like to install MS-DOS in unit C: to be able to play old DOS
games.

Is it possible to create a partition in disk C: without having to
format it? How can I do it, if possible? I already found a tutorial
in Windows Support on how to do it, but I'm afraid having to format
and install Windows XP again.

Over and above the answers you've already gotten, you have a total of 4GB
hard drive space. This is a *tiny* amount these days. Sooner or later (and
very likely sooner rather than later) you're going to have to bite the
bullet and buy more hard drive space.

Fortunately hard drive space is very cheap at the moment. You can buy a 40GB
drive (even that is tiny these days) for under $40 and an 80GB drive for not
much more. If I were you, I'd think very seriously about buying a new drive
in that size range.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

1. Make it the primary master disk.
2. Create a 15 MByte FAT partition at the far end.
3. Install XOSL (free boot manager) in this partition.
This will, amongs other things, modify the MBR
of this small disk.
4. Make the main disk the primary slave.
5. Add WinXP to the XOSL boot manager.

You can do this because XOSL lets you boot into
any OS on any partition (primary, logical) on any
disk (primary, secondary, master, slave). Even
better: It does not modify the boot environment
of that OS. You can therefore return to your original
configuration by making the original disk the primary
master.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

As an afterthought: The installation user interface of XOSL
is somewhat marginal. Best to disconnect all other disks
during installation in order not to risk wiping your existing
OSs.

 

[Guest]

Thank you all for your advices. From what I read, for me it's better not to
tweak it a lot and choose the DOSbox or the VirtualPC options. I had already
found the DOSBox option and even read a few texts in its site...
Maybe if anyone could explain me what would be the most easier option to
take..?
As for the disk space, that's not a problem for me, because I have two PC's
and this is the older one. I use it to surf the Internet and make experiments
as this one. I'm not to worried in replacing my hard drives, because it'll be
more worth to buy a fully new one than spending money in an very outdated
machine...

 

[Guest]

Sorry I forgot... I already tryed out DOSBox and that's why I wanted to try
installing MS-DOS for real. It's because DOSBox is too slow... I'm a
Championship/Football Manager addict and I want basically to play CM 97-98
again. It makes no sense that an old game runs so slow in a Pentium III
500Mhz machine and it's because of that emulator.. If I have a real MS-DOS
version I believe it would run smoothly.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

You can always boot the machine with a DOS floppy boot disk!

 

[ronald.phillips]

or configure dosbox correctly so it's faster. Probably too complicated
to read english words in the README though.

 

[Guest]

Too complicated to read the README?? What do you mean by that? I still have
it and the README.txt file is very "readable"...
I also use a program called Dfend, which creates a game profile and
automatically runs it in DOSBox without having to configure this one. It has
a wizard which does it automatically, asking us to choose the main options.