Weird triple boot situation

[123456]

I have 3 hard drives. Master=22GB IBM, NTFS (Drive F). Slave=20GB Maxtor NTFS (Drive D). Secondary Slave=1GB Seagate FAT32 (Drive C). I once switched the master and secondary slave b/c it made more sense to have a 22GB master rather tan a 1GB master. Did that sucessfully, after copying NTDLR, NTDETECT, and making a boot.ini myself that told where XP, and 2000 were. Both work fine. I installed MS-DOS 7.1, but it doesn't boot to it. I just get 2k, and XP in the boot loader. I tried "C:\="MS-DOS"" and "C:\=bootsect.dos" but both result in a restart. Any ideas on how to get MS-DOS 7.1 to boot?
Here's my boot.ini...

[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /FASTDETECT /bootlogo /noguiboot
C:\="MS-DOS 7.10"

[Rick]

You need to enter the drive location in the Boot INI just like in the xp and 2k line.

What drive did you install dos on ?
3?
If so try this line
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(3)partition(1)\dos=dos7

It should look something like this
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /FASTDETECT /bootlogo /noguiboot
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\dos="dos7"

[Rick]

You need to adjust the disk and or drive number to match your setup

[123456]

I read that you need the system partition to be FAT32 as well. I killed off Windows 2000, nothing special in there anyway, all my programs/data is in XP.

Installed MS-DOS 7.1, and copied a /WINDOWS directory from a WIndows 95 virtual machine, installed drivers. It works, even got internet working in 95 and 512mb RAM with no problems. Really takes me back :P . Oh, and I got an NTFS reader for 95.

[Paul Komski]

For future reference you cannot edit boot.ini in the suggested manner to boot to DOS or a DOS based version of windows from an NT based system partition. If booting from such partitions the reference must be to a RELEVANT AND APPROPRIATE DOS-based boot sector that in turn references io.sys or its equivalent file in other DOS versions.

When you see a line in boot.ini referencing just C:\this in fact is a reference to C:\bootsect.dos - with bootsect.dos being chosen by default when no other file name representing a boot sector is chosen or spelled out.

Once a DOS-based system partition is taken over by an NT-based OS the previous boot sector is stored as bootsect.dos. If this is by any chance deleted there are ways of restoring it.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

I once switched the master and secondary slave b/c it made more sense to have a 22GB master rather tan a 1GB master. Did that sucessfully,

Seems it's near here where the "I installed MS-DOS 7.1, but it doesn't boot to it" seemed to begin.

Swapping Primary Master drives in a several boot situation is only asking for 'tissues'...

[123456]

Hehe. PC lesson learned. Thanks. BTW, in MS-DOS 7.10 setup, it detects an XP/2000 installation and asks to make a dual boot. That always works.

[Paul Komski]

Doesn't sound like MS-DOS 7.10 which was the version embedded in Win95B and Win98 and not, as far as I know, released as a standalone or as a version that would setup a dual boot in the manner described.

It also occurs to me that by swapping the drives you have changed the relevance of the C:\ drive letter which is now likely to be D:\ or E:\ so one could try D:\="MS-DOS 7.10" or E:\="MS-DOS 7.10" or if there is a bootsector file (it will be 512 bytes in size) in the relevant partition you could also try D:\BootsectorFilename="MS-DOS 7.10" etc as the relevant line in boot.ini. Not however sure that this would work when io.sys, msdos.sys and command.com were not themselves originally installed onto the current C: drive.

It would however be interesting to know if simply changing the drive letter could work or whether the system partition for your DOS version must be retained on HDD-0 along with all the other DOS files since things like the path statement in autoexec.bat could also be incorrect.

[Rick]

I think you will find he is running Free-dos 7
It is way ahead of the old MS-dos versions

If I remember correctly Free-dos is the latest version of the old 4-dos
Many of the hardware manufactures are using free-dos for the bios flash boot disks.
I know Intel is using it.

BTW.. No matter where you connect the dos drive .
It is an always will be C: On my triple boot system
Dos is on IDE1 as master
with 2 other drives on IDE0
WinX shows the dos drive as E:
Dos shows the other drives as d+e

[123456]

This is the version: http://scp.gmxhome.de/msdos71/MSDOS71.jpg

[Paul Komski]

Out of interest - where did you get it from? Even though the graphic says Microsoft I dont believe that they ever released it as a standalone - yet alone a standalone that can set up a dual boot menu - which makes me think it must be some sort of customised hack from the version shipped with Win95B/Win98.

[123456]

Found it on some site after googling MS-DOS 7.1.