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Dual boot with MS-DOS and Win2k

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brint

Classic Senior Dude
Joined
Dec 16, 2000
Location
Denmark
Hey all. I have a little question. How do I configure windows 2000 to dual boot with MS-DOS? The plan is to split up a disk into two partitions. One will house win2k(NTSF) and the other will house MS-DOS(FAT32). But how do I do that? I have been fooling around with the boot.ini file on the win2k partition but with no luck.
How can this be done?
 
Are you looking to install DOS 6.22 to a FAT partition after the fact of having W2K already installed, or are you planning on installing DOS first and then performing a clean install of W2K? If you plan on performing the latter, it's a much easier process since you won't have to worry about DOS 6.22 overwriting the W2K boot sector after running the sys c: command.

You could also format the primary partition using FAT or FAT32 (meaning using a program like Partition Magic to convert from NTFS), and perform the following...
1. Boot your machine with a Win98/Me boot disk.
2. Run the command sys c:
3. Get a copy of BootPart.exe from...

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gvollant/bootpart.htm

4. Use Bootpart.exe to restore your W2K boot sector (BootPart.exe only mentions NT boot sectors, but it works on W2K also).
5. Use BootPart.exe to create a DOS boot sector file.
6. Use BootPart.exe to modify the Boot.ini for a dual boot.

Better yet would be to format a partition no larger than 2GB in FAT for DOS 6.22, install DOS to that partition, then install W2K to the second partition formatted using NTFS. W2K will see the DOS OS during Setup, and modify the Boot.ini accordingly so as you'll have the choice of booting to either DOS or W2K at the boot menu screen.
 
Last edited:
redduc900 said:
Are you looking to install DOS 6.22 to a FAT partition after the fact of having W2K already installed, or are you planning on installing DOS first and then performing a clean install of W2K? If you plan on performing the latter, it's a much easier process since you won't have to worry about DOS 6.22 overwriting the W2K boot sector after running the sys c: command.

You could also format the primary partition using FAT or FAT32 (meaning using a program like Partition Magic to convert from NTFS), and perform the following...
1. Boot your machine with a Win98/Me boot disk.
2. Run the command sys c:
3. Get a copy of BootPart.exe from...

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gvollant/bootpart.htm

4. Use Bootpart.exe to restore your W2K boot sector (BootPart.exe only mentions NT boot sectors, but it works on W2K also).
5. Use BootPart.exe to create a DOS boot sector file.
6. Use BootPart.exe to modify the Boot.ini for a dual boot.

Better yet would be to format a partition no larger than 2GB in FAT for DOS 6.22, install DOS to that partition, then install W2K to the second partition formatted using NTFS. W2K will see the DOS OS during Setup, and modify the Boot.ini accordingly so as you'll have the choice of booting to either DOS or W2K at the boot menu screen.

Thanks for the reply. I tried Bootpart.exe, and now Win2k wants to boot up but dos is left in the shadows. Plus Win2k is missing its kernel file :shrug:
I think I will try and go the ladder way. Start with Dos, one its own partition and then install Win2k on its own partition. But thanks any way.
 
brint said:
Win2k is missing its kernel file
The Boot.ini is probably damaged (ntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupt error at boot)... boot to the Recovery Console and type:

bootcfg /rebuild (creates a new Boot.ini file)

This should at least get you back into Windows.
 
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I made a win2k repair disk and tried to fix it that way. It did copy a lot of files, so my hopes was up, but then it rebooted and started to load windows it just froze and gave me a black screen. So I formatted it ALL and installed Dos 6,22 on its own fat partition (2047,3MB) and made a second partition for win2k (NTSF). It is installing as I type this, so far it looks okay. Thanks for the help redduc900. Respect and peace out dude.
 
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