China DOS Union

Now some netizens start to install WinNT/2K or even XP. However, after they boot these operating systems, they find that many DOS programs cannot run and pure DOS cannot start. What's the matter?

You know, there is a thing called "Command Prompt" in WinNT/2K/XP. It looks similar to the MS-DOS window in Win3.x/9x on the surface. However, they are completely different. Win3.x/9x is a large protected mode interface enhancement program running under MS-DOS, while WinNT/2K/XP is an independent operating system based on OS/2, NT components. Therefore, there are essential differences between them. Similarly, the MS-DOS provided in Win3.x/9x is the real DOS, and the "Command Prompt" in WinNT/2K/XP is just a "DOS virtual machine". Since it is virtual, the effect is naturally not as good as the real one. Therefore, when this "virtual DOS" cannot run DOS programs normally, only the real DOS (such as MS-DOS 7.10) can be used to run them.

Since WinNT/2K/XP does not come with DOS, if you want to boot to pure DOS from the hard disk after installing these operating systems, you can only use dual-booting. Many netizens know that when WinNT/2K/XP starts, there will often be a menu from which you can select the operating system to boot. However, sometimes there is no "DOS" option in this menu, and even the boot menu does not appear at all (if the original operating system is reserved when installing WinNT/2K/XP, the option of the original operating system will appear in the boot menu of WinNT/2K/XP). Then what should be done? The following introduces the method of installing DOS after installing WinNT/2K/XP.

The startup of DOS requires the boot sector and startup files of the DOS system. And the key to installing DOS after installing WinNT/2K/XP is to establish them. You may ask, after the system installs WinNT/2K/XP, the content in the main boot sector has been replaced with non-DOS, why can it boot to DOS through the above-mentioned boot menu? This is because if DOS (such as MS-DOS 7.10) has been installed in the system, WinNT/2K/XP will automatically create the BOOTSECT.DOS file in the main boot partition (usually drive C) during installation, and this file retains the boot information of DOS. After selecting to boot DOS in the boot menu, WinNT/2K/XP uses this file to enable DOS to boot. Therefore, if the BOOTSECT.DOS file already exists in C:\ (that is, the main boot partition), there is no need to manually create this file. You can directly copy the IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, and COMMAND.COM files of DOS (such as MS-DOS 7.10) to C:\ (it is best not to use the SYS command to transfer the system, for details, please refer to the introduction in the next paragraph), and then modify the BOOT.INI file as introduced below.

For the startup files of the DOS system, you know that you can use the SYS command自带 by DOS to transfer. However, if you do this directly, only DOS can boot, and the boot information of WinNT/2K/XP will be overwritten and cannot boot. In order to make both DOS and WinNT/2K/XP bootable, there are several methods. You can use a very practical tool called BOOTPART, which can be found in the "System Tools" of this site. Its function is very powerful. For example, it can write the information of the specified system into the boot sector, including MS-DOS 6.x, MS-DOS 7.x, and WinNT/2K/XP. For example, if you want to write the boot information of MS-DOS 7.10 into drive C, you can use the command BOOTPART DOS71 BOOT:C:. Therefore, the specific method is to first use the SYS command (such as SYS C to transfer the DOS system files to drive C, and then save the content in the main boot sector at this time (that is, the DOS boot information) to the C:\BOOTSECT.DOS file, which can be easily realized with a small tool called SRC Tools in the "Disk Tools" of this site. Among them, SRCBOOT, SRCMBR, and SRCFAT are commands for saving, backing up, and comparing BOOT, MBR, and FAT respectively. The specific usage method of the SRCTools toolset can be seen in the special article in the "DOS Articles" column. For example, SRCBOOT C: C:\BOOTSECT.DOS /S can save the boot sector of drive C to the C:\BOOTSECT.DOS file. At this time, the BOOTSECT.DOS file has been successfully established. Next, it is to restore the boot information of WinNT/2K/XP, which can be completed with the above-mentioned BOOTPART tool, such as BOOTPART WINNT BOOT:C:. Then perform the following operation of modifying the BOOT.INI file.

Another method is to first save the boot information of WinNT/2K/XP to a file, then respectively establish the system startup files and boot information of DOS, then use the above-mentioned SRC Tools to save the boot information of DOS to the C:\BOOTSECT.DOS file, and finally restore the boot information of WinNT/2K/XP saved in the file to the boot sector. The specific process of establishing the system startup files and boot information of DOS can be seen in the above method, and both saving and restoring the boot sector of WinNT/2K/XP can be completed with the SRC Tools command. For example, you can execute the SRCBOOT C: C:\NTBOOT.DAT /S and SRCBOOT C: C:\NTBOOT.DAT /R commands respectively (/S parameter means save, /R parameter means restore, and NTBOOT.DAT is only a temporary file used for saving and restoring the boot information of WinNT/2K/XP, which can be deleted after completion), and then perform the following operations.

Finally, you can start to make the dual-boot menu. The boot menu of WinNT/2K/XP is saved in the BOOT.INI file in the root folder of the main boot partition (usually C:\BOOT.INI). The operation method is to first remove the read-only, hidden, and system attributes of the C:\BOOT.INI file (such as using the ATTRIB command自带 by DOS, or using the enhanced ATTRIB command, etc.), then open the C:\BOOT.INI file with a text editor (such as EDIT自带 by DOS), and add a line: C:\="MS-DOS" under the item in the file. After completion, save the file and restore the various attributes of the file, then restart the system, and a boot menu will appear, in which there will be the "MS-DOS" item. Select this item to enter the pure DOS mode. At this time, the dual-boot of WinNT/2K/XP and DOS is successfully made, and then you can select the corresponding boot option to boot the corresponding system.

Note: If you want the system to automatically perform the above operation of installing DOS under WinNT/2K/XP (instead of manual setting), please use the "MS-DOS 7.10 Full Installation Edition" (which can be seen on the website or forum). It can automatically realize the full installation of MS-DOS 7.10 under WinNT/2K/XP and automatically realize the above multi-booting. Since the method used by this full installation edition is better, its success rate is greater, and everyone is welcome to use it.

In addition, if the primary partition of the hard disk (usually drive C) is in NTFS format, the above method will not work because DOS does not support the NTFS format. At this time, there is another solution, that is, use the method of virtual floppy disk image to boot DOS (that is, directly boot the DOS in the virtual floppy disk from the boot menu of WinNT/2K/XP). It can be realized by using a software called VFloppy, which can be specifically seen in the "DOS Boot Disk/LOGO Technology" section.

SRCTools can no longer be downloaded. If the moderators have it, please upload it here, thank you.

I once uploaded SRCTools to this forum. Actually, the MS-DOS 7.10 boot disk I made already contains SRCTools, namely three files: SRCFAT.COM, SRCMBR.COM, SRCBOOT.COM:

http://newdos.yginfo.net/dosware/mdos71bd.zip

I'm a newbie.
Hope everyone takes care.

Okay, welcome!

I'm a newbie. Please, if the C drive is winme and the D drive is win2000, when installing pure DOS, copy the IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM files to C:\. When booting, will the system boot into winme or DOS? Both are on the C drive. Thanks!

If not processed, only DOS will boot. If you rashly use sys to transfer system files, Windows 2000 won't boot either.

If you run the SYS command and then WinNT/2K/XP fails to boot, running the BOOTPART command once solves the problem, and then both DOS and WinNT/2K/XP can boot.

Here comes I

←Newcomer, hello webmaster, hello everyone!~~~

Moderator, could you make that article introducing the dual system of DOS and WinNT clearer? For example, make each operation step clear. We noobs can't understand it much. I'm using winXP now, can't even use tc, only can use boot disk, inconvenient, also waste floppy drive. I searched, my boot disk doesn't have bootsect.dos file. Please help, thanks!

To put it simply, the best way is actually to first boot the system with the MS-DOS 7.10 startup disk I made. After booting, run the following commands under DOS:

SYS A: C:
SRCBOOT C: C:\BOOTSECT.DOS /S
BOOTPART WINXP BOOT:C:

Then add the line to boot DOS in BOOT.INI;
If necessary, copy A:\MSDOS.SYS and A:\LOGO.SYS to C:\

good, successful!

First time here, what is DOS?

It worked, that's really great, thank you~