The World of Computer Software/World_Of_Computer_Software-02-387-Vol-3of3.iso/b/bootmgr.zip/DSNTOS.TXT

Text File | 1992-12-10 | 4KB | 64 lines

          Coexistence of DOS, Windows NT, and OS/2 2.0
                       On Hard Disk Drive.

     It has been heard to this author that many on this BBS have
not been able to load DOS, Windows NT, and OS/2 2.0 on the same
computer.  Contrary to this, I have successfully loaded these on
a 486DX33 and 386SX25 with no glitches.  The trick to the loading
all three is to have DOS loaded first on Drive (Active Partition)
C: on a sufficiently large drive to hold all the software you
desire.  In my case, I have been using 500+ MB Conner and 500+
Fujitsu IDE drives.  500MB is a little large, but considering all
the software one uses, at the minimum you could get by with is
200MB but then you wouldn't have much room to do anything after
DOS, Windows 3.0, Windows NT, the Win32 SDK, and OS/2 2.0 eat up
all your disk space.

     Never-the-less, to start with, if your system has never seen
OS/2 (or its Boot manager) or Windows NT things are a lot simpler.
All you have to do is clear at least 70MB in your C: partition, use
the OS/2 installation (FDISK) or DOS 5.0 Fdisk to make at least a
35MB logical partition somewhere on your drive, and a "1MB"
"unnamed" partition the VERY END of your drive.  Next, you have to
load Windows NT and Win32 SDK on the C partition and be assured
that DOS and Windows NT are functional.  Then all you have to do
is load OS/2's Boot Manager in that "Last free 1MB partition" on
your drive and put OS/2 in the 35 MB logical partition you created
earlier.  What you should see is first a choice between DOS and
OS/2 and then a choice between DOS and Windows NT.

     If your system has seen anything but DOS you have a bit more
work to do.  First, back up your C: partition and any other
partitions you may fear to lose (My 500MB drives had C: to G:
partitions to start).  I already had a 100+MB C: partition and
moved everything elsewhere except the root directory, the DOS
directory, and the Windows 3.1 basic working system.  Next, I
booted the system with a DOS 5.0 Floppy having "Format", "Sys",
and "Fdisk" at least; and then proceeded to destroy the C:
partition and recreate it with Fdisk (I already had it at 100MB so
I didn't have to reconstruct the whole drive although maybe that
would be the best plan). Then I also created a 1MB non-DOS
partition at the "very end" of the 100MB G: existed and created a
logical drive of 34MB at the G: or H: position (H: would be better
because when you restore the now 65MB G: logical partition contents
your paths won't get screwed up) and finally the other 65MB logical
partition with the rest.  The next step was to format the G: & H:
drives (the 34MB partition formatting could wait because the OS/2
installation will take care of that but it goes fast and is
probably cleaner).  Now you have a "clean" area ready for
installation of all three operating systems.  First, you must put
DOS (at a minimum) back on the C: drive and anything else you like
just so you have at least 70MB free for Windows NT and the Win32
SDK.  Next step; install Windows NT + Win32 SDK and be sure they
work.  After this I edited the "boot.ini" to make DOS the default -
it's your choice depending where you want to end up.  Then all you
have to do is install OS/2 2.0 per instructions using that 1MB free
non-DOS partition for Boot Manager and put OS/2 2.0 in the 34MB
partition you created.  AND wonder of wonders everything seems to
hold together (at least with IDE drives - I don't know about SCSI
drives).

     The trick to the loading is to have a system free of all the
weird things the NT loader and OS/2 Boot Manager do to things you
cannot see.  Once I messed up Windows NT and had to go through the
whole procedure over - agony of agonies!  Good Luck!!!!!