If I wanted to have my xp home installed, and install 98 SE and 2000 DOS 3.1 95... (to test stuff i make for compatibility and to explore around in them), what is the best program to use?
I want to be able to say like reboot into _______
but not have to pick every time i want to start up the computer.
Anyone know of a good app?
You can set the default to XP and set the time to respond to 2-3 seconds.
Alternatively, you can hack the boot.ini file. That's something I wanted to try myself at some time, but never did.
The boot.ini hold a few lines of info about all OSs in your computer. Here's something you could try:
1) Keep a backup of your boot.ini
2) Make a little program "Reboot into 98" that will:
- replace the boot.ini with another one with information about W98 only (delete the lines concerning other OSs)
- reboot the computer
3) In every OS, at startup, replace the current boot.ini file with the backup (so you boot into XP next time)
If you are not 100% sure about what you're doing, don't try this at all... It may cause your computer to just not boot again!
lol, not gonna risk it...
although i usually talk all big about my computer skills (i know more than most people) i generally don't have the confidence to mess w/ the core windows files...
well if you want multiple windows on... i forget there is a certain order to install them.. but uh you can partition your drive and install each windows on there own partition and have windows boot loader to select which to boot up.. which is controlled with the boot.ini
or just use Virtual PC.. although really slow.. your not messing with your harddrive ...
-bolero
i saw a program called like partition commander or something... i don't really want to do it manually, im not sure if maybe that would partition them for me?
I have a triple boot laptop. XP Home came standard with it=Main OS; XP Pro for Mac emulation=2nd and Linux Mandrake 9.1 as third OS. Linux to run certain non windows apps.
what are you using to switch between them?
You dont need any apps.
If you want a multiple os system, but you dont want to pick between them at boot the answer is simple.
Just reformat your drive, make several partitions using the standard dos fdisk.exe utility.
Then install in this order partition 1 =dos, THEN win98 on another partition (though I dont know why you'd want to do that, as you could just install win 98 on the dos partition (win98 works on DOS, it has it's own dos (v7) built in)), THEN install XP last (on the last partition ("logical disk drive in the extended partition" as it's called.
At bootup it'll give you a choice, select XP, goto start up options
"time to display list of operating systems" change this to "0", or simply disable it.
Next time you boot it'll go straight into XP, like it's a 1 operating system computer.
If you do wanna boot another operating system, hit F8 during boot, and you'll get your choices.
If you wanna always boot into another operating system just replace the boot.ini file that'll always be on the c:/ drive. In this case because you installed XP last (the right way to do it), the boot.ini on C:/ is XP's boot.ini.
Back that up somewhere, and replace it with any other os's boot.ini
Yeah, same answer.
I used Partition Magic, created 4 partitions (one for storage),
XP home was installed from the factory=C:\
Then installed XP Pro to D:\
Storage remained E:\
and left a section of the harddrive unpartitioned for linux to manage and partition during the install.
Now when I boot up, LILO (linux boot manager) shows me a graphical window to choose OS's, for 10 seconds...
if I dont select it goes to Linux, the other choices are linux choices, except for one choice...says windows.
When I click windows, I then get the Windows Boot Loader scree and can choose between XP Home and XP Pro. Its very easy! I do it all the time. You can also resize your partitions with PMagic, but not recommended to resize the linux one.
Just one thing, you should use Partition Magic instead of FDISK, since it lets you manage partitions w/ no loose of data (i.e. resize) and handles NTFS file system. (Note that NTFS partitions will not be "visible" from Windows 98 and below)
And for the boot loader I have always used LILO as well.
The best and safest way to do it is ti use VMware Workstation.
No need to play with partitions or risk destroying your HD.
We use VMware GSX Server here at work to test new server builds. It rocks!
The cool part is, if you want to test a program and think it may blow up the install, jus make a copy of the VM virtual disk file. that way if you royaly hose it up, just delete the file and use the backup copy.
If it runs on Intel CPU's, you can load it in VMware.
Man... I just read this and I sound like I'm doing a commercial, but the program is that good.
It's a bit expensive, $399, but there are other ways of obtaining such software that I don't condone, but don't necessaraly disagree with either.
Just my two cents.
wow, f***ed my comp up bad!
not a fun experience...
im in the process of reinstalling xp, guess i just won't do this...
woooooooooooooooooooohoooooooooooooooooooooo got my XP BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not sure yet if 2k is still on there...
If it is that would be awesome...
btw, how come in 2k nothing shows up its just an empty dtop, w. no start menu or anything.
Only way to get to stuff was ctr+alt+delete run
during the 2nd OS install, did you check the box thAt says you want to say where it installs, and then during the install point it to a different partition other than C:?
Did you install the OS's on the same partition? You have to make it install on other partitions during setup.
yeah, did that, but for some reason installing it on J: corrupted XP on C:
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