Hi all
I believe that DOS 7.1 (which supports FAT32) is included in Windows 98. So, what is the best way to split, for example, a 120GB HDD for a Windows 98 machine for use on both the Win and DOS sides? Should I just use max partition size of the whole disk? Would this cause any issues in DOS (pure DOS)?
Ive just used the whole disk as fat32 and boot into the windows dos. Installing 6.22 would limit me to 2gb partitions. with a bit of messing around, you can even get windows 3.1 installed under dos 7.x and run that from dos.
If you just need to split the current partition I recommend GParted Live its a bootable Linux cd that has a GUI
Unless there’s a particular reason you need to run an old version of DOS, I would just make one partition, install win98, set bootgui=0 in msdos.sys, and then set up a config.sys menu to determine what drivers you want to load at boot time.
If I want different MBR’s or boot sectors, I would conder setting up a remotely accessible SD —IDE or CF—IDE adapater and swap media.
I'd install the Windows 98 FAT32 partition to start at Cylinder not past 1022 - and do the rest* in the 8 GB before.
DOS FAT16, Win2000/XP NTFS or Boot Manager, Extended partition with data exchange logical volume FAT16
There's a good boot loader called plop boot manager it's good for dos, 95, 98se, xp and has a star warp background like the old screen savers and has a password option from memory, you can name the OS menus to anything you like
120GB is pretty big for Win98 let alone dos!
I agree if its just for gaming you typically don't really need an old version of dos as well as the copy that sits under Win98. You can then select restart in dos mode from within windows for a clean dos environment AND have a fully working Win98 PC.
My partition map usually looks like this assuming its just Win98 installed
C:\ 2GB, Primary partition , Win98, Fat32 (I really don't trust OS been installed on large partitions)
Assign rest of the drive as extended in fdisk.
D:\ No set size, logical drive, Fat32, "Games drives" this is where I install all my games and misc files
E:\ No set size, logical drive, Fat32 "recovery drive" Drivers, Windows cab files,
"Dos 7" can read all this and as a bonus if I ever need to reinstall windows I don't need to reinstall alot of the games (dos ones won't even know the difference)
Also tools like scandisk dont take so long to complete. I ran defrag on a 80GB drive last week, that took over 24hrs!
