Multiboot computer start to finish

PD80303

Member
Hello there I just found your forum and thought I would join. My name is Paul I'm very interested in computers and learning all I can. I ask alot of questions most dumb but, thats what you get being a novice.

Goal Multiboot system consisting of Dos XP Pro and Vista Ultimate.

1. I was hoping I could put each OS on its own drive and hot swap it.

I definately want Vista on its own HD.
I would definately love to put XP Pro on its own HD as well.

Now comes Dos

1. What version of Dos should I get? 6.22 7.1?
2. How can I put Dos on its own HD?
3. Can I put Dos on Sata HD"s

I want to build a new custom computer what parts should consider for this build?
 
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Hi Paul, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

Don't worry about asking easy questions - each and every situation is unique and has its own twists and turns that ensure no one gets bored :tongueout: :smile:

Here's what you need to do.
Install DOS (any version). Install XP. Install Vista.

You can stick each on it's own HD if you like, but remember that DOS needs to be the very first partition of the very first drive in order to boot.

When you install XP, it should create a file called "bootsect.dos" in your root drive. EasyBCD will use this file to boot into DOS.

Once Vista is installed, download EasyBCD 1.61 beta (important to use this, and not the final stable version!)

In EasyBCD you can add a new DOS and a new XP entry.

Hope this helps.
 
Hi Paul, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

Don't worry about asking easy questions - each and every situation is unique and has its own twists and turns that ensure no one gets bored :tongueout: :smile:

Here's what you need to do.
Install DOS (any version). Install XP. Install Vista.

You can stick each on it's own HD if you like, but remember that DOS needs to be the very first partition of the very first drive in order to boot.

When you install XP, it should create a file called "bootsect.dos" in your root drive. EasyBCD will use this file to boot into DOS.

Once Vista is installed, download EasyBCD 1.61 beta (important to use this, and not the final stable version!)

In EasyBCD you can add a new DOS and a new XP entry.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info and welcome Computer Guru. My next question to actually try a multiboot system above.

What is the newest computer specs that won't effect Dos from functioning?

CPU P4 Dual Core Quad Core
Video Card what newer card has vesa to work in dos
Soundcard I'm not sure it matters right?
 
Good question - it's not every day you hear a question about a computer being too good to run an OS! :lol:

I believe all the current video cards (even the latest from nVidia and ATi) have VESA support - because they can run in Linux with the stock VESA drivers just fine.

CPU - so long as it is x86 compatible. So any Intel but the Itanic :smile:

Soundcard - I doubt you'll find anything released in the past decade with DOS drivers, but I never found sound all that enticing during the DOS days anyway :lol:

Important: Keep in mind that you can't run DOS on a RAID 0/1 system!! That almost always requires driver support on the OS to recognize and interface with the RAID config - so make sure you're not running RAID before installing DOS.

Another issue I am not sure of: SATA drives. I don't know if you can boot into DOS with a SATA drive, you may need IDE.

I would never install DOS on my machine, for me that's *exactly* what things like VMware and VPC were created for. Have you considered running DOS in virtualization instead?
 
Good question - it's not every day you hear a question about a computer being too good to run an OS! :lol:

I believe all the current video cards (even the latest from nVidia and ATi) have VESA support - because they can run in Linux with the stock VESA drivers just fine.

CPU - so long as it is x86 compatible. So any Intel but the Itanic :smile:

Soundcard - I doubt you'll find anything released in the past decade with DOS drivers, but I never found sound all that enticing during the DOS days anyway :lol:

Important: Keep in mind that you can't run DOS on a RAID 0/1 system!! That almost always requires driver support on the OS to recognize and interface with the RAID config - so make sure you're not running RAID before installing DOS.

Another issue I am not sure of: SATA drives. I don't know if you can boot into DOS with a SATA drive, you may need IDE.

I would never install DOS on my machine, for me that's *exactly* what things like VMware and VPC were created for. Have you considered running DOS in virtualization instead?

Thanks for input. I wondered about sata drives. I don't use raid. I thought about VPC etc but, I wanted more challenge.

I think I'm going to get my laptop repaired and try dual booting and see if I can't find a way for dos to work. Stick with Vista on my desktop.
 
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