China DOS Union

I want to install a system where pure DOS and WinXP coexist, so that when the machine boots up a menu appears and I can choose whether to start DOS 7.01 or XP. I don't know whether this method will work: first install DOS 7.1 on drive C, then install XP on drive D.
I downloaded an MS-DOS 7.10 full direct-run edition, but I don't know how to use it to install a pure DOS system, the kind where it boots straight into DOS.
Please enlighten me, experts!!

How about this: first download the MS-DOS 7.10 boot disk I made, then after booting use the SYS command to transfer the system to the hard disk.

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

You can install it using the multiple primary partition method. I recommend the software SPFDISK. It can install DOS and XP very conveniently, and there will not be any conflicts at all.

Here I want to make something clear: in fact there is no such thing as an MS-DOS version above 6.22. The so-called 7.0, 7.1, and even 8.X are all user-defined by netizens. The so-called MS-DOS 7.0 refers to the DOS that comes with 95OSR2, while MSDOS 7.1 refers to the DOS that comes with 98SE. So if you want MS-DOS 7.1 and XP to coexist, then in fact you just need 98SE and XP to coexist. Install 98SE first, then install XP. If you want to boot DOS, choose 98SE, then press F8 and choose boot to the command-line mode. If you want a better multi-system boot setup, try system commander.

You can use a virtual system. Open DOS under XP.

To make this absolutely clear: Microsoft indeed has never publicly announced MS-DOS 7.x/8.0, yet they do indeed exist, and they were not defined by netizens themselves, but by Microsoft itself, only without any public declaration. If you don't believe it, use commands such as STRINGS VER to check the version number of the DOS that comes with Win98; what it shows is 7.10. Or look at the COMMAND.COM file in MS-DOS 7.x; inside it there are strings like MS-DOS Version 7,Microsoft Corp. Also, only when the DOS version number is set to 7.10 can those DOS commands in MS-DOS 7.10 run; otherwise a wrong version error will appear. So the existence of MS-DOS 7.x/8.0 is absolutely a fact. Especially from my nearly two years of using MS-DOS 7.10, I feel this even more deeply; it is all just trickery done by Microsoft.

Also, the DOS that comes with Win95OSR2 is not 7.0, but 7.10 (the same goes for Win98; the characteristic is that both support FAT32 partitions), while the DOS in the first release of Win95 is 7.0. This too was defined by Microsoft itself. In the foreign computer world these things can be said to be common knowledge, nothing new.

And here is practical proof of this: when a boot disk made by Win98 starts up, does it boot MS-DOS or the MS-Windows 98 desktop? The answer is obviously the former. Since that is the case, then it is an MS-DOS boot disk. Then look at its version number: any third-party tool that checks DOS version numbers (such as the STRINGS VER command mentioned above) will show the version number as 7.10. Therefore, this boot disk is without doubt an MS-DOS 7.10 boot disk.

Actually, Microsoft's deception is not very clever. They merely changed a few strings (which is why I changed them back in the MS-DOS 7.10 boot disk I made) and bundled MS-DOS 7.10 with Win98, just like Win98 and Internet Explorer were bundled together. But for those of us who have really done some research on computers, we should be able to distinguish them effectively and tell everyone.

Who checks a version number with third-party software? MS-DOS is an independent commercial operating system. You can buy genuine MS-DOS 6.22 on the market, but it is impossible to buy any version above MS-DOS 6.22. Just by changing IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, and COMMAND.COM it becomes 7.1 or 7.0, but that cannot be called a complete operating system, and really cannot be called a new DOS. (In the README files of foreign software, if MSDOS7.0 or the like is mentioned, in most cases it will also specifically point out which version of 95 or 98 DOS it is, because users under those DOS versions cannot possibly see a version like 7.0 by typing VER.)

These days users are probably also unable to buy genuine MS-DOS 6.x (Microsoft no longer allows it to be sold), unless it is pirated. But ROM-DOS 7.10 and the like can still be bought, and MS-DOS 7.10 can also be considered purchasable (you can first buy Win98, then extract it from there; there are related introductions on foreign websites).

The exchange between the two posters above is really wonderful! Actually, no matter what MSDOS 7.1 ought to be called, it is not important. In fact, MSDOS was still developing for quite a period of time, and many friends have also joined the ranks of researching and exploring DOS, because we cannot do without DOS. Whether or not Microsoft released MSDOS 7.1 separately, it is still a new MSDOS version. Since “in the COMMAND.COM file in MS-DOS 7.x, there are strings like MS-DOS Version 7,Microsoft Corp.” then calling it MSDOS 7.X is not wrong either. If one insists on calling it “the DOS of whichever version of 95 or 98,” I instead feel that is not very good, though of course I do not deny that way of calling it.

Use sys c: to transfer DOS to drive C
then install WinXP onto drive D and that'll be OK.

Actually it is not only COMMAND.COM; even IO.SYS in MS-DOS 7.x contains the string “MS-DOS Version 7, Copyright Microsoft Corp.” What's more, many DOS programs nowadays need MS-DOS 7.x in order to run properly. The most typical examples are the long filename driver under DOS—DOSLFN—and the NTFS drive driver under DOS—NTFSDOS.