If you create a DATA partition that is after or spans over the 8 GB limit, MS-DOS cannot access it.
So I recommend to create DOS-Partition and DATA partition below 8 GB limit.

Is there a reason to have both Win95 & 98SE ?

Disruptor wrote on 2024-04-12, 08:00:

If you create a DATA partition that is after or spans over the 8 GB limit, MS-DOS cannot access it.
So I recommend to create DOS-Partition and DATA partition below 8 GB limit.

Is there a reason to have both Win95 & 98SE ?

well, I think 1GB will be enough for MSDOS and all his data, and also DATA parition will be FAT32, so I think I prefeer to keep the current order

I wanna have 95 and 98 just for nostalgia

My favourite setup is:

Physical partition order:
DOS - 1 GB FAT16
WIN2K - 5 GB NTFS (with boot manager)
EXTENDED - 2 GB FAT16
WIN98SE - FAT32 (starting at cylinder 1022, just below the 8 GB limit and up to the end of the disk)

So the sum of the first 3 partitions is 8 GB minus 1 or 2 cylinders.
During installation of WIN2K & WIN98SE I hide the DOS partition to have all system partitions as drive "C".
After installing WIN98SE I swap the logical order of the partitions to have the DOS partition after WIN98SE (solves problem with C drive and invalid COMMAND.COM)

Then I have visible:
in DOS: C = DOS, D = DATA
in WIN98SE: C = WIN98SE, D = DATA, E = DOS
in WIN2K: C = WIN2K, D = DATA, E = DOS, F = WIN98SE
And the boot manager of WIN2K to boot all systems
In fact, I use the WIN98SE partition for all data that does not fit into the 2 GB FAT16 DATA partition.

-
But you can create your partitions as you wish and to use your own boot manager (or FDISK to change active partition).

Ya the ony way I know that it might work is by using the patched IO.sys from rloew tb plus because it removes the limitations of how many primary partitions you can have in 9x. Make multiple primary dos partitions in win XP or 2003, install BOOTMGR from BTTR to hide partitions and boot them. Like disrupter said DOS 6.22 wont be able to access any other partition. you will have to hide them from it. 6.22 also cant access partitions over 2gb size so the shared partition would never work anyways.

Otther than nostagia purposes installin 6.22 and 9x is very redudant. Anything that runs on 6.22 I think runs on dos 7.10 or has been fixed by now to do so.

Warlord wrote on 2024-04-12, 08:49:

Ya the ony way I know that it might work is by using the patched IO.sys from rloew tb plus because it removes the limitations of how many primary partitions you can have in 9x. Make multiple primary dos partitions in win XP or 2003, install BOOTMGR from BTTR to hide partitions and boot them. Like disrupter said DOS 6.22 wont be able to access any other partition. you will have to hide them from it. 6.22 also cant access partitions over 2gb size so the shared partition would never work anyways.

Otther than nostagia purposes installin 6.22 and 9x is very redudant. Anything that runs on 6.22 I think runs on dos 7.10 or has been fixed by now to do so.

Disruptor wrote on 2024-04-12, 08:38:

But you can create your partitions as you wish and to use your own boot manager (or FDISK to change active partition).

Please, can you guide me about how to create the boot menu with a boot manager? Can I do it using Windows 10 and writting it on the SD card which haves all the partitions?

How can I create all as primary partitions? I'm happy if each SO can see only their own particion and DATA partition, but msdos6.22 which I'm happy if only se it's own partition.

I have a multi-boot Pentium 4 system with multiple Windows OS installs.

I use BootIt Bare Metal as both a bootloader and partition manager. It makes it trivial to create and manage multiple partitions and assign them to different boot options. It also allows for more than 4 primary partitions for a single drive.

My DOS and Win9X partitions are set up as follows:

128 GB SSD (HD1)

• 1 GB (FAT 16) - DOS 6.22
• 1 GB (FAT 16) - Windows 3.11
• 2 GB (FAT 16) - DOS Games
• 2 GB (FAT 16) - DOS Games
• 10 GB (FAT 32) - Windows 95
• 20 GB (FAT 32) - Windows 98 SE
• 20 GB (FAT 32) - Windows 98 SE
• 20 GB (FAT 32) - Windows Me
• 20 GB (FAT 32) - Windows Files

I keep the DOS partitions within the first 8 GB of the drive. Then everything else follows. I also made sure to use a 128GB drive to abide by the Win9x drive size limit.

The NT partitions (NT4 / 2000 / XP) are installed on a separate drive.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-04-12, 12:59:

I have a multi-boot Pentium 4 system with multiple Windows OS installs. […]
Show full quote

I have a multi-boot Pentium 4 system with multiple Windows OS installs.

I use BootIt Bare Metal as both a bootloader and partition manager. It makes it trivial to create and manage multiple partitions and assign them to different boot options. It also allows for more than 4 primary partitions for a single drive.

My DOS and Win9X partitions are set up as follows:

128 GB SSD (HD1)

• 1 GB (FAT 16) - DOS 6.22
• 1 GB (FAT 16) - Windows 3.11
• 2 GB (FAT 16) - DOS Games
• 2 GB (FAT 16) - DOS Games
• 10 GB (FAT 32) - Windows 95
• 20 GB (FAT 32) - Windows 98 SE
• 20 GB (FAT 32) - Windows 98 SE
• 20 GB (FAT 32) - Windows Me
• 20 GB (FAT 32) - Windows Files

I keep the DOS partitions within the first 8 GB of the drive. Then everything else follows. I also made sure to use a 128GB drive to abide by the Win9x drive size limit.

The NT partitions (NT4 / 2000 / XP) are installed on a separate drive.

Partition Setup HD1 128GB v3.jpg

BootIt Menu - All Windows installs.jpg

It is nice but it is a paid program. Maybe is there a open source alternative which do the same?

i like to use grub4dos on at least a pentium, it was slow boot on a 486.
plop boot loader is another. I like this one cause it can hide or rearrange partitions

Pickle wrote on 2024-04-14, 15:05:

i like to use grub4dos on at least a pentium, it was slow boot on a 486.
plop boot loader is another. I like this one cause it can hide or rearrange partitions

which is the process?

first installing 3.11? then 95, then 98 and when the program? should the software for creating the boot be executed on win 98?

I always used to use system commander deluxe. There's some hate for it these days, but back in the day I thought it was amazing.

psaez wrote on 2024-04-14, 21:32:

Pickle wrote on 2024-04-14, 15:05:

i like to use grub4dos on at least a pentium, it was slow boot on a 486.
plop boot loader is another. I like this one cause it can hide or rearrange partitions

which is the process?

first installing 3.11? then 95, then 98 and when the program? should the software for creating the boot be executed on win 98?

I would create a primary partition for each of the OS's you want (should be fine since you need at most 3 and the max is 4). The key then is using fdisk to select which partition is the active one and then install the OS that will be located on it. I would make a dos+3.11, win95, and win98.
grub4dos has a program to write it into the mbr and then there was a menu file to configuration the partitions. Id need to look up the details if you intended to try this, or google it
plop is a bit easier. it can be booted from cdrom and installed. Then under its setup you can select which partitions can be mounted, which order they are mounted, and which one is active with the OS to boot.