Windows 10 Home 64bit, XP Pro 32bit, and W98SE 16bit Multiboot... Done

[ragnargd]

Hi,

 

>> does anybody have experience with Windows 10, W98SE (and maybe XP) multiboot?

 

I have now.

 

I guess i'm the first... ? 

 

First: Easy BCD 2.2 does it as was predicted. While experimenting, WX seems to be able to boot all OSes now by itself out of the box, even when coming from hibernation. I did not try further, though.

 

I started with the 4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0, C2Q6600 @2.4GHz 95W, 4GB Ram (aka 3.3GB), Audigy Player, Intel MT PCI GBit, and one SSD per OS, as usual.

OS was W7 Home Premium 64bit. Legacy Driver 309.08 was already installed.

 

WX-Update complained about my MSI GeForce 7950 GT 256MB PCIe, but that was to be expected.

 

I then used the Microsoft Windows 10 Media Creation Tool to upgrade, and it went like a charm.

 

Only, the Driver did not show up. Started manually, it did not recognize ANY GPU.

 

Long story short: The Microsoft Driver for the PCIe-Bridge did not recognize the PCIe-Slot (yellow exclamation mark in System). Maybe a bug, whatever.

 

I installed my trusty GeForce 6800 GT 256MB AGP, and presto: We have 1900*1200 32bit colour.

 

Fun Fact: DXDiag still looks the same.

 

Job done.

 

Cheers, Ragnar G.D.

Edited August 8, 2015 by ragnargd

[jaclaz]

does anybody have experience with Windows 10, W98SE (and maybe XP) multiboot?

No.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/questions-with-yes-or-no-answers.html

 

1. Quite a few people have many years of experience in multibooting Vista, 98, and XP.
2. Quite a few people have several years of experience in multibooting 7, 98, and XP.
3. Quite a few people have a few years of experience in multibooting 8 or 8.1, 98, and XP.
4. At the most a very limited number of people may have a few days of experience in multibooting 10, 98 an XP.

The good news are that those in points #1, #2 and #3 can manage #4 easily as essentially there have been no changes in the booting sequence in Windows 10.

 

jaclaz

[rloew]

Multibooting DOS, 95, 98SE, ME, XP, 7 and 8 was easy. One more should not be a problem.

[ragnargd]

We'll see.

I've already updated five "normal" PCs from W7 to WX, and except for a hiccup caused by a rescue-Windows, all went fine until now (had to install some WX-Drivers later on for better experience, but that was no show-stopper).

Today I'll go for my first multi-boot system.

I'll report.

@jaclaz: YES!

Edited August 2, 2015 by ragnargd

[CamTron]

You should always install Windows 98 before anything else. In general, install earlier OSes before later OSes. Windows 9x needs to be on the C: drive (unless you use some special boot software like Boot Commander), while XP and 10 can be installed on any partition. The XP bootloader should automatically detect Windows 98 and just work. I've never tried booting Windows 8 or 10 with Windows 9x, but if the Windows 10 bootloader happens to not automatically work with XP and 98, you can manually add BCD entries to it using a tool like EasyBCD or Visual BCD Editor.

[jaclaz]

Windows 9x needs to be on the C: drive (unless you use some special boot software like Boot Commander), while XP and 10 can be installed on any partition. 

Not exactly-exactly.

 

DOS and Windows 9x/Me need to be on the First Active Primary partition of First Disk (that will be assigned drive letter C: at boot time automatically, the difference is subtle but important).

 

This same (Active) partition must also be (unless a third party bootmanager is used) the NT system "boot" partition (what Microsoft calls - reversed - "system") while the actual operating system can be on any volume (that can be either another primary partition or a logical volume inside extended) on any disk (not necessarily first disk) this is what anyone would call "system" volume (but that the good MS guys call "boot").

About boot/system naming:

http://www.multibooters.co.uk/system.html

 

And more generally about dual booting a DOS and a NT:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/169320-dual-booting-dos-and-win7/

 

jaclaz

[halohalo]

I didn't try multiboot, but I installed Windows 10 retail version on my old pc.

 

When I installed Windows 10 from official 16GiB USB flash drive, installation hanged after showing the "invalid partition table" message. To solve the problem with GA-8I865PE775-G-RH (rev. 4.9), I created another bootable 4GiB USB flash drive by using Diskpart on Vista.

 

Then I got a new problem. Just like Windows 8, installation hanged on the flag screen, and it took me one day to find a solution.

 

I made a Windows 7 PE x86 boot disc by using WinPe-tch Direct on Windows 2000 (with KEP installed), and ran Notepad from Windows 7 PE to open \sources\setup.exe in Windows 10 flash drive as administrator.

 

Finally, I ran setup.exe and completed installation.

 

[ragnargd]

@halohalo: Wierd solution, but cool.

 

>> Jaclaz: DOS and Windows 9x/Me need to be on the First Active Primary partition of First Disk (that will be assigned drive letter C: at boot time automatically, the difference is subtle but important).

I could't put it better. Thanks, Jaclaz.

 

I found a solution for the PCIe-Problem on W10, so i can now use any GF6/7, PCIe or AGP, on the 4CoreDual-SAT2 R2.0 now, as long as it has 256MB VidRam. I decided for a 6800GT AGP 256MB, equipped with an Accelero S1 Cooler, as it fits best into the cramped space in that particular PC.

 

CHeers, Ragnar G.D.