Dual Boot Windows 311 and Windows 95??

edited March 2005 in Software
Well I am just curious if it is possible to dual boot Windows 311 and Windows 95. If it is I would much like a step by step instructional guide for doing so correctly or well at least the basics...
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Comments

  • From what I know, you'd need dual partitons... because I think 3.11 wants DOS 6.22 and 95 doesnt...
  • Well I do have partitions set up I have three actaually all at 2045MB
  • You can use one partition but it will have to be FAT16. Have windows 95 installed in a directory called WIN95 and have win3 installed in WIN3. The only thing that you have to do for the DOS 6.22 is use a bootdisk I use to have my old PC set like that for repair use and to play some old DOS games that wouldn't run in DOS7.
  • BUT it will say "INCORRECT DOS VERSION" when you boot :P
  • Heres what you do.

    Fat16 partition hard drive. Install DOS 6.22 and use the default directory. Install windows 3.11 in a directory called Win3. Make a DOS 6.22 bootdisk with your CD-ROM, mouse and what ever you want or can fit on the bootdisk. Keep in mind you will need HIMEM.SYS and maybe EMM386.EXE loaded in the CONFIG.SYS on the bootdisk. Now install Windows95 as useal and use a directory called WIN95.

    Now if you want to use windows95 just boot as normal, if you want to use DOS 6.22 / Windows 3.11 use the bootdisk. Its that simple, the only time you would get incorrect dos version is if you try and run DOS7 programs in DOS 6.22.
  • Theres a patch that lets you use MS-DOS 8.0 (ME) and below with Windows 3.1X. I tried it and it was ok.
  • You could also do that with DOS 7.
  • Yeah, I did it with...I think 98.

    Just on a note, dont let Windows 3.11 modify your config.sys. just add himem.sys. If you want to, you could make a startup menu. If you get the DOS crack, the readme file has a menu in the readme file.
  • Yes Windows 3.1x can be ran on windows 95-ME jus fine, as long as you apply the patch to IO.sys. Windows 3.11 can also install on an FAT-32 drive (I've done it with 98) however you must not allow it to use a permanent swap file as it will always be "corrupted" according to 3.1, and yeah...might not want to let it change autoexec.bat and config.sys, but you can always watch what it does and doesn't change.
  • This makes me wanna try it now.
  • When I used it, it was unstable.
  • Worked fine for me
  • i tried....and it didnt work for me...it jst started the dos and i could only go in 3.11
  • becuase you did it wrong, you let if modify your config.sys/autoexec.bat
  • You can also use BootMagic 7 or something.
    Install Windows 95. Then install Bootmagic. run it, and select "install new operating system"or something like that. then restart. it will prepare your HDD. Then you can just install Win3.11, and have a nice bootloader.
  • I used fdisk and created a primary partition of 7.8 gigs and created an extended partition. Then I used partition magic to shrink the size of the partition to 495 mbs and changed it to fat 16 and installed windows 3.1 and calmira and Microsoft Bob. It didn't work well for me but I installed Windows 95 on the fat 16. 3.1 would do some things but often failed and said it was the wrong version of dos so I put back the disk image of 3.1 without Windows 95. I then used partition magic and created another primary partition of 1.98 gigs using fat 32 and installed Windows 98se. I'm not going to buy XP and I don't have Windows 2000 so I'm currently just running two systems on the same machine. I use a Boot Magic floppy to boot when I want to change.
    Good luck
    Thump
  • WHy did you install BOB? Bob is about the worst product ever made by M$, they still are trying to force "Rover" on us all in XP! You'll be amazed how much more room you have on your 3.1 partition without it.
  • TCPMeta wrote:
    You can use one partition but it will have to be FAT16
    it has to be FAT16 anyway as far as i know
    both win95 and dos6.22 do not support any other partitions even FAT32
  • 95 OSR 2.1 and up use FAT32
  • the later editions of 95 do support fat32
  • I just said that :-P
  • yeah i know now but im usin this throught VNC and its a little slow...
  • The best way is to use System Commander's OS Wizard.
  • system commander's OS wizard? I'm telling you people, 3.1x will install on an already existing 95+ FAT16 and 32 partitions with the update patch.

    If you want some nice simple boot menu, install dos and 3.11, then install windows NT, any version will do. You'll get the lovely black and white boot menu and in some cases won't even have to do anything, it will configure itself. If you install NT 3.51 or lower, you could possibly toss 95 also on it, as they won't share any folders (NT 3.x doesn't have a program files folder does it?). I dual booted NT and 95 but it didn't last long, when it came to updating one, the other would mess up until finally 95's IE made NT blue screen at boot.
  • Windows 85 CAN use FAT12, I'd keep them on seperate partitions for safety and use FreeLoader or similar for the bootmenu.

    -Q

    PS. What does BOB have to do with anything?
  • Slash wrote:
    The best way is to use System Commander's OS Wizard.
    Well, it worked for me on my 486. First i created 2 primary partitions with pmagic, then I marked one active and another hidden. Then I installed 3.1 on that partition. After, I marked 2nd partition active and 1st hidden. then i installed 95 there, only after that, from 95 I've installed SystemCommander, and it worked fine.
  • bah...I'd rather just use one large partition.
  • OK, If you happen to have a Linux CD of any distro that uses the LILO bootloader you can install the bootloader and have it as your system bootloader instead Windows NT bootloader. Or you can Install windows 95 and disable it to load into windows automaticly and make it just load up to the command prompt and then two batch files in the root of the drive called Win1.bat and Win2.bat. Make them that Win1 will make Windows95 startup and Win2 can make Windows 3.x load up. Ofcorse use diffrent directorys like Windows1 and Windows2.
  • WOW! That's an excellent idea... I'll try that!
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