Dual boot Win95 and DOS with OS2 boot manager


Tip
How ya doing? I'm currently testing the latest version of ARJ which is 2.55b Alpha Test. It supports Win95 long file names. It has to be run in a DOS box while Win95 is running to preserve the LFN. If you don't have a copy let me know and I'll send you one. I've been testing it for several weeks now with no problems as yet. :)
Also Neale, I've been reading about some of your readers hesitating about whether to install Win95 over their old version of Windows. If you need to use your old version of DOS and Windows now and again you can install Win95 into its own folder during installation. If you boot and do nothing, you will get Windows 95. If you boot and press F4, you'll get your old version of DOS, from which you can run your old version of Windows. The only problem with this method is, if you install Win95 in its own folder, you'll have to reinstall the applications you want to run under Win95.
The method I prefer and am currently using is to install OS2's Boot Manager. This utility allows you to partition your hard drive into a maximum of four Primary partitions with a different Operating System in each partition. The Boot Manager occupies one of these Primary partitions, and is then set as the active partition for the disk. When you boot up you are presented with a menu showing each OS you have installed. When you make a selection, that OS is then assigned the drive letter "C" and all other drives are then mapped. The OS/2 Boot Manager is not assigned a drive letter.
I currently have the full OEM version of Win95 and DOS 6.22 & Win3.11 in Primary bootable partitions which are hidden from each other. I then have OS/2 Warp installed on a logical drive in the extended DOS partition, and use other logical drives for data storage and applications. Using this method would still allow me to have yet another OS hidden in a Primary partition, and when any particular OS is running it has full use of the system and is unaware of the other OSs on the drive. Also you can set any of the OSs to be the default and to start after 30 sec (adjustable 0-30) if no selection is made. This method is also easily achieved with hard drives now averaging 1gigabyte.
Hope this helps.
- Bill Sheehan

Category: Win95, OS/2
Issue: Oct 1996
Pages: 180-181

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