Date:	Mon, 06 Jul 1998 15:15:09 +0100
From:	Matthias Paul <PAUL-MA AT reze-1 DOT rz DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>
Subject:	Re: Booting opendos with win95
To:	opendos AT delorie DOT com
Reply-to:	Matthias DOT Paul AT post DOT rwth-aachen DOT de
Message-id:	<3EBB53C4590@reze-1.rz.rwth-aachen.de>
Organization:	Rechenzentrum RWTH Aachen

On Sun, 05 Jul 1998 Oded Nissan wrote:

> How can I boot opendos with win95 ??
> When I try to boot to opendos (which was installed first) I get a
> message that win95 does not recognize the previous OS.
> 
> How do I get win95 boot manager to boot opendos ??

This is due to Microsoft refusing to support the DR-DOS family 
by their dual-boot feature (really, it would be trivial for them, 
if they would have wanted too)...

However, you can do it the other way around: *First* install Windows 
95 (not using FAT32!) and *then* install DR-DOS, which - in this 
situation - will install Caldera s multi-boot loader LOADER. To just 
dual-boot DR-DOS and Windows 95 the BOOT.LST file looks like:

IBMBIO.COM S [5] Caldera DR-DOS 7.02
                 ^--- description
              ^------ optinal timeout for DR-DOS
           ^--------- load type (S for DR-DOS)       
^-------------------- file to load
           
At startup LOADER will display a menu, and you can select

 F1 = standard boot sector (the last OS SYSed, that is Windows 95)
 F2 = Caldera DR-DOS 7.02
 
However, LOADER can boot alot of other OSes, too, but that s off
topic here. See LOADER /? for details.

In your situation Windows is already up (and running?). If Windows 
SETUP has not erased or damaged the DR-DOS installation on your 
disk (so far I ve seen a few cases where it completely erased it!) 
you can still activate DR-DOS without SYSing your drive again. Just 
copy DR-DOS LOADER and BOOT.LST into the C:\ root, and run it:

 LOADER BOOT.LST

or - if you want to give F1 the default timeout (5 seconds) -

 LOADER BOOT.LST[5]
 
Please note, that before doing this (or running DR-DOS INSTALL) you
*must* disable any resident virus protection in your BIOS SETUP, 
as LOADER needs to write new MBR code to your disk. So, if any
alert box pops up in this situation, answer Yes. However, you must not 
install LOADER, if your current MBR contains vital software for your 
system instead of generic bootstrap code, e.g. special security 
software and the like. However, Ontrack s DiskManager and similar 
software is compatible with LOADER although it too resides in the 
MBR. You have just to take care that DiskManager is already running 
before you install LOADER. LOADER will then install into something 
which could be called "virtual MBR", while DiskManager is loaded
from the physical MBR.

Hope it helps,

 Matthias
 
 
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 eMail: <Matthias DOT Paul AT post DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>
 Web  : http://www.rhrz.uni-bonn.de/~uzs180/mpdokeng.html
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