Dual-Boot DOS with Vista?

[Jo Ann]

Does anyone know of an easy way to dual-boot DOS with Vista? I want to add a DOS (FAT) partition to my Vista PC's hard drive and I don't mind purchasing a program if it can create an easy-to-use DOS-Vista (dual-boot) setup.

Before anyone suggests it, I do not want to do this by using a virtual program.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

Jo Ann

[appster]

Hi Jo Ann,

I don't know of a clean or easy way to implement a DOS-Vista dual boot, but I do have a friend who uses DosBox (http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Main_Page) for that purpose.

If that approach doesn't appeal to you, perhaps some others here can help you achieve the DOS-Vista dual boot setup you desire.

Hth, appster

[Hairy Coo]

This boot manager-Boot US HERE (http://www.boot-us.com/functions.htm)
claims it can be used as a commandline version for all Win32 variants and DOS.

Not sure however if that would include Vista,as it was written before Vista.

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,

What do you need DOS for? Games? Then, by all means, try DosBox.

If it's something else, do tell us, we can think of something. There's FreeDOS, then virtualization etc. Booting natively will be a problem, because DOS prolly won't recognize 90% of your hardware.

Mrk

[Eagle Creek]

I'm wondering why you want to have this set-up. Of course that's not the answer to your question but maybe there are other possibilities to get the same result in the end.

To anwser the question: can't Vista's boot manager take care of it? I mean, it's pretty sophisticated (at least for Windows standards) and it allows you to make several configurations.

And by the way: will it work? I know Windows 98 won't boot with a 4 GB/Quad Core machine. I doubt DOS will. Since Vista likes a lot of resources this could form a problem.

[Beto]

{QUOTE-> I'm wondering why you want to have this set-up. <-QUOTE}


It is short sightedness to a question/problem someone needs to conquer.

There are infinite ways to avoid a problem and only a hand full of ways to address the problem head-on.

Let's give the person a reasonable solution to a well addressed problem and not constantly double guess them unnecessarily.

I'm sure that the problem has been well pondered prior to posting in this case.

And dismissing the problem is evidence of quick-to-the-draw lame response of an otherwise urgent and legitimate ask for help.

[Eagle Creek]

Well, as you can see in my post I also try to give a solution to his exact question.

Although I also think he thought about it to choose for this specific set-up, it doesn't harm to ask. Sometimes people choose something simply because they don't know there are alternatives available.

[Espresso]

You could install DOS to the partition/drive of your choice and then reinstall the Vista boot loader with the repair util (Vista installation disc). It might automatically add the OS to its boot list but if not you'll have to add it with EasyBCD (http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1)or manually. If you're installing it to another drive, you can set that drive to default in BIOS, install DOS, then switch the default drive back to the Vista drive. If you need to run DOS, just switch the boot drive at boot time (F11 or whatever key your motherboard/bios uses).

[Jo Ann]

As it turns out, I ran into a number of difficulties using Vista's boot loader to dual-boot DOS, so in a state of frustration I gave in to appster's suggestion, DOSBox (http://www.dosbox.com/information.php). DOSBox is a DOS emulator that (once properly configured) works very well and is satisfying my requirements. :thumb:

Thanks to all (especially appster!) for your suggestions.

[Eagle Creek]

Good to hear!

Do you mind telling us why you need DOS for?

[Jo Ann]

{QUOTE-> Good to hear!

Do you mind telling us why you need DOS for? <-QUOTE}
Back in the days of DOS my dad's partner used a database program called 'dBase' to run their business. His ex-partner passed away and my dad recently had to recover vital info from that database. He also needs ongoing access to that database over the near term. Since my dad is not too computer savvy, I'm helping him with those needs.

[Eagle Creek]

Aah, perfect!
Well I hope you can work it all out with the emulator :)

[Jo Ann]

{QUOTE-> Aah, perfect!
Well I hope you can all work it out with the emulator :) <-QUOTE}
Actually, it's working surprising well. :thumb:

[Brian K]

Jo Ann,

I'm multi-booting two DOS and two WinXP partitions using BING as the boot manager. I'm sure having a Vista/DOS multiboot would not be a problem.

I use a DOS partition to enable automatic unattended image restores with IFD/ Ghost 2003/ Drive Snapshot.