SOLVED Triple Boot 3.1, 98 & Neptune

[Silver_Pharaoh]

They should have called it "Service Pack 5"

 

[c627627]

You were talking about Windows XP/Neptune dual boot.
If you install EasyBCD on Windows XP, then after installing Neptune on another partition, EasyBCD can be used to switch between Windows Xp and Neptune. So You run EasyBCD after installing Neptune on another partition and then EasyBCD detects it and you use EasyBCD to modify boot.ini files.

You can and should install EasyBCD on both Windows XP and Neptune and use EasyBCD from both Windows Xp and Neptune to switch which default OS is setup to boot in.


I am not talking about DOS because it is not clear if EasyBCD can be use to multiboot DOS with OS from Windows 95 to present. i would like to know the answer to that question, if you find that out through search or through experimentation please post.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

You were talking about Windows XP/Neptune dual boot.
If you install EasyBCD on Windows XP, then after installing Neptune on another partition, EasyBCD can be used to switch between Windows Xp and Neptune. So You run EasyBCD after installing Neptune on another partition and then EasyBCD detects it and you use EasyBCD to modify boot.ini files.

You can and should install EasyBCD on both Windows XP and Neptune and use EasyBCD from both Windows Xp and Neptune to switch which default OS is setup to boot in.


I am not talking about DOS because it is not clear if EasyBCD can be use to multiboot DOS with OS from Windows 95 to present. i would like to know the answer to that question, if you find that out through search or through experimentation please post.

Will do. Also, thanks for the suggestion with XP on another partition.

It's a 6.4 GB disk, with a 2GB partition hidden because of serious drive errors, the drive does the "HDD click of death" in that partition, so I hid it. The rest of the disk is stable.

I just got XP running, I'll install EasyBCD and reinstall Neptune on it's own partition. (Windows 98 doesn't need 2 GB anymore ), then run EasyBCD.

I'll keep you updated.

 

[c627627]

Oh. The click of death affecting only a single partition? And if you hide it, no more clicks of death? That's interesting, never heard of that.


EasyBCD will definitely handle Windows 98/Neptune/Windows XP. It's a matter of simple boot.ini file entries. The thing I'm waiting to find out is how you will setup DOS or Windows 3.1, with post Windows 9x OSs.

 

[benbaked]

That drive is on borrowed time, I suggest retiring it before it drives you crazy with the unpredictable behavior that results from dying hard drives.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

That drive is on borrowed time, I suggest retiring it before it drives you crazy with the unpredictable behavior that results from dying hard drives.

That would be ideal, and if I find an old laptop, I would. But I'm not going to buy a new/fast drive only to have the laptop run it at UDMA mode 2. It's also a Pentium 2 laptop at 400 MHz, hardly worth the upgrade I'd say.

But yes, click of death starting at sector 6 million something and ends probably around sector 8 million. That drive had bad sectors on when I got it, I just opened up the HDD 2 days ago to find no scratches, only a spec of crud or something on the first platter, so I just closed it back up.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

Okay, DOS, 98, Neptune and XP are installed (wow 4 OS's on 4 GB!)

And EasyBCD says this when I open it: The Boot Configureatio Data Store could not be opened.
The system cannot find the file specified.

What's going on?

 

[c627627]

There is a button for "Add Entry" and you need to add the new Entry manually for Windows XP and for Neptune and for Windows 98.
Maybe DOS works too, maybe it doesn't.

Make sure you select correct Type from the drop down menu and correct corresponding drive letter.

Maybe you need to UNCHECK: Automatically detect correct drive and do that manually too.

 

[c627627]

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

There is a button for "Add Entry" and you need to add the new Entry manually for Windows XP and for Neptune and for Windows 98.
Maybe DOS works too, maybe it doesn't.

Make sure you select correct Type from the drop down menu and correct corresponding drive letter.

Maybe you need to UNCHECK: Automatically detect correct drive and do that manually too.

Ok, trying that now...

EDIT: I tried, but I can't select any options from the "add new entry" box, it's all disabled. There is however, an option in "BCD Deployment" to add the XP bootloader to the MBR... Should I do that?

 

[c627627]

EasyBCD has a forum: http://neosmart.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=7

I would start a thread there.
I myself was able to install different OSs, Windows 9x/Me/2000/XP and simply manually setup entries as described above. Anything beyond that, you would either need to figure out how to setup the boot.ini file or start a thread at the EasyBCD forum.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

EasyBCD has a forum: http://neosmart.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=7

I would start a thread there.
I myself was able to install different OSs, Windows 9x/Me/2000/XP and simply manually setup entries as described above. Anything beyond that, you would either need to figure out how to setup the boot.ini file or start a thread at the EasyBCD forum.

See here.

Taken from it: EasyBCD doesn't work on XP-only machines.

I only have XP, Neptune, 98 and DOS. No Windows Vista or 7, I think it needs Vista or 7 to load the .BCD files, because XP dose not have these .BCD files.

Time for a 3rd party boot manager?

 

[c627627]

That is too bad.
Please post if you find another loader, otherwise, we'll have to figure out how to manually set the boot.ini files.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

That is too bad.
Please post if you find another loader, otherwise, we'll have to figure out how to manually set the boot.ini files.

Yeah oh well.
I found this:
Boot-loaders

Which lead me to this:
Xosl boot loader

Seems to be able to boot DOS right up to 2000. I'll give it a try.

Oh and thanks for all the support on this so far , I'm glad someone else is crazy enough to give this a try!

EDIT: I'll have to finish making new partitions tomorrow, I messed them up so I gotta find that bad spot on the disk again.

 

[c627627]

What method do you use to "find" the bad spot then create a partition over it then hide the partition to make clicks of death stop? That's a very ingenious way to save a drive that's not all that important and just have a system to play around with like you are doing now, I'm just having trouble understanding how you could know which parts to partition and cut off from the rest, but if it stops the clicks of death that initself is interesting.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

What method do you use to "find" the bad spot then create a partition over it then hide the partition to make clicks of death stop? That's a very ingenious way to save a drive that's not all that important and just have a system to play around with like you are doing now, I'm just having trouble understanding how you could know which parts to partition and cut off from the rest, but if it stops the clicks of death that initself is interesting.

Trial and error!

I just started to make a huge 3gb partition, then shrank it until I heard the click of death while I was formatting. Then I made the partition bigger by 100 mb until the click of dead stopped. (meaning the main partition was not on that bad spot).

I formatted the bad spot as NTFS labelled "BAD" so I know not to put data on that partition.
No data on bad partition=OS not reading bad partition=no click of death!

The click is still there, it's just I don't put data there anymore, so the drive doesn't read it.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

GENTLEMEN!

We have a Dual-Boot! *yay*

I installed Xosl on its own partition, the I installed DOS on its own partition the I installed Windows 98 on its own partition.

I hid all the other partitions so each OS install thinks there is only 1 partition.
Then I re-installed Xosl (because DOS Windows 98 re-write the boot sector) and voila! I can boot DOS & 3.1 or Windows 98.

Now, I need to get Neptune installed then I'll have my Triple-boot 3.1, 98 and Neptune!

Xosl is defiantly the way to go, Clean GUI, mouse support and easy to use. (just add the partition to the boot menu)

I'll post when all three OS's work together!

 

[c627627]

Is there a need for a separate partition for xosl? Can it work from Win9x and from other OSs?

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

Is there a need for a separate partition for xosl? Can it work from Win9x and from other OSs?

Well, no. It can't be run under Win9x.

You get 2 options to install: On its own partition, or on a "DOS" drive...
So it runs it's own GUI and gives you mouse support which is nice.

I'm at my neighbours house right now, waiting for the courier to drop off a heat pump for him, so when I get back, I need to unhide the partitions then enable booting to the Neptune partition.

 

[c627627]

So as not to waste a partition, probably install it on the DOS partition?

As opposed to running it "from" Win9x, I understand you are saying http://xosl.sourceforge.net/ cannot be installed on the same partition as Win9x, is that correct?