The first question is, why would you want to do this? There is nothing in particular you can do with Win95 OSR 2.5 that you cannot do just as easily in 98 SE.

Win9x has to boot from the active primary partition, which it will designate drive C. That means all your drive letters will be shuffling around depending on whether your are booting 98SE or 95, unless you can implement something that hides the partition you're not booting from.

Are each of those partitions primary partitions, or did you make one of them a logical partition inside an extended partition? Also, do you plan on using the Win2K boot manager?

Jorpho wrote on 2020-04-26, 17:12:

The first question is, why would you want to do this? There is nothing in particular you can do with Win95 OSR 2.5 that you can […]
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The first question is, why would you want to do this? There is nothing in particular you can do with Win95 OSR 2.5 that you cannot do just as easily in 98 SE.

For nostalgic purpose, simply want to have the Win95 OS as well!

Win9x has to boot from the active primary partition, which it will designate drive C. That means all your drive letters will be shuffling around depending on whether your are booting 98SE or 95, unless you can implement something that hides the partition you're not booting from.

Are each of those partitions primary partitions, or did you make one of them a logical partition inside an extended partition? Also, do you plan on using the Win2K boot manager?

Yes, I am planning to using the Win2K boot manager. That is why I am planning to install it last.

Yes, but:

Jorpho wrote on 2020-04-26, 17:12:

Are each of those partitions primary partitions, or did you make one of them a logical partition inside an extended partition?

Because if only one is primary, then as far as I understand, you will not be able to have two Win9x installations side-by-side, because it will always put its boot files on the primary partition, overwriting whatever was there. A Win9x install can manage a "Previous MS-DOS version" but not a "Previous Windows version" as far as I know.

i have actually done this but with dos 6.22 and win 95 on separate partitions and can boot independently from other each other and they cant see each other and later done same with my xp/vista/7 build

i used a third party boot manager
Acronis OS Selector 8 - which supports o.s.'s up to xp
Acronis OS Selector 11 - supports o.s.'s later than xp

I used third party program super fdisk to hide the dos 6.22 partition after installing and setting it up then installed win 95 (so it couldn't see dos 6.22) and then un-hid it afterwards for the boot manager to see it and also let the boot manager hide the different partitions in it own individual settings for each o.s.

i also install the boot manager on it own partition (you can install in same partition as a windows one) but if want to delete the windows later and reinstall it, it will also delete the os manager, so better to give it own partition (Acronis OS Selector 8 only uses a 12mb or 15mb partition) ( Acronis OS Selector 11 strangely wouldn't install unless i gave a 100mb or a 120mb partition - can't remember)

see this treads
my first vintage pc build (Win 95) - RETIRED
My Socket LGA775 Build (XP/Vista/7)

1st point. agree, 95 and 98 are so similar not much point. accept pure nostalgia.
2nd point. No it's not possible unless using a 3rd party boot manager.
3rd point. When using the MS boot manager rule is always oldest to newest. Not so much a problem here but good to know if you want NT3/4/2k/XP etc

What will happen is when you run Win95 setup it'll ask you where you want to install and you can choose another drive ok but next boot it will have overridden 98's boot files and become the same thing as if you just copied the hard drive to another computer, it doesn't become the OS it's just a bunch of files.

if you do want to do this then that's fine of course. You'll just need to do something like Robhalfordfan mentioned above

chinny22 wrote on 2020-04-26, 19:54:

3rd point. When using the MS boot manager rule is always oldest to newest. Not so much a problem here but good to know if you want NT3/4/2k/XP etc

that how i intalled all my o.s.'s oldest to newest

bear in mind also if use seperate hdd for any o.s. - dos and win9x no problem but with nt based o.s. like win2k or xp - the o.s. will install on slave drive but it will install the boot files on the master drive - no matter what

but if your using one big hdd and loads of partitions - it shouldn't be an issue

oh yeh should add 9x before any NT variant!
The way I wrote that you would install 98 after say NT4, yeh Don't do that!

yeah i agree, if your not about the order of o.s. - look up their original release date and see from there

dr_st wrote on 2020-04-26, 19:22:

Because if only one is primary, then as far as I understand, you will not be able to have two Win9x installations side-by-side, because it will always put its boot files on the primary partition, overwriting whatever was there.

No, it will put its boot files on the active primary partition. "Primary" is kind of a misleading word there, considering you can have up to four primary partitions. Only one of them can be the active primary partition, though. (If you try to set multiple primary partitions as "active", I think the computer will probably refuse to boot.)

If I'm not mistaken, the NT boot manager can install to the master boot record and can set the active primary partition when making a selection, so that should work, in theory.

Jorpho wrote on 2020-04-26, 21:10:

dr_st wrote on 2020-04-26, 19:22:

Because if only one is primary, then as far as I understand, you will not be able to have two Win9x installations side-by-side, because it will always put its boot files on the primary partition, overwriting whatever was there.

No, it will put its boot files on the active primary partition. "Primary" is kind of a misleading word there, considering you can have up to four primary partitions. Only one of them can be the active primary partition, though. (If you try to set multiple primary partitions as "active", I think the computer will probably refuse to boot.)

Well, I did say "if only one is primary". Obviously if there is only one primary partition, there is only one active primary partition. 😀

Now the question is - what happens if no partition is marked as 'active'. Will the installer fail?

Jorpho wrote on 2020-04-26, 21:10:

If I'm not mistaken, the NT boot manager can install to the master boot record and can set the active primary partition when making a selection, so that should work, in theory.

So I wonder how it can work. Have 2 primary partitions. Mark the first as active and Install Win9x on it. Mark the second as Active and install a different Win9x on it. The install an NT-based OS (ideally on a third partition), and hopefully, the boot manager can figure out how to juggle the active flag?

dr_st wrote on 2020-04-27, 09:58:

Now the question is - what happens if no partition is marked as 'active'. Will the installer fail?

I expect the hard drive won't boot beforehand. The installer ought to provide some error message.

Jorpho wrote on 2020-04-26, 21:10:

So I wonder how it can work. Have 2 primary partitions. Mark the first as active and Install Win9x on it. Mark the second as Active and install a different Win9x on it. The install an NT-based OS (ideally on a third partition), and hopefully, the boot manager can figure out how to juggle the active flag?

That is what I was thinking, yes. It shouldn't be necessary to hide any of the partitions in the process.

Thank you for your informative messages. Based on my research, there seems to be 3 methods to achieve this goal:

PARTITION MANAGER METHOD
Since Windows prefer to install itself to a primary active partition fdisk is not the best program to use. A partition manager that can hide and set active partitions is better suited. There are many boot managers that can be used.

1) Partition hard drive for first OS.
2) Install OS.
3) Resize first partition if needed.
4) Create second partition for second OS.
5) Hide first partition, make second active.
6) Install second OS.
7) Install Boot Manager.

FDISK METHOD
Partition magic just complicates things.
1) You've got Win98 on the primary dos partition.
2) Then you create an extended partition in the remaining space.
3) Next create a logical drive in that extended partition.
4) Finally, reboot and format the logical drive.

BOOT MANAGER METHOD
1) Un-hid the 98 partition in 95
2) Boot to the 98 install disk
3) Install 98
4) Install Partition magic under 98
5) Enable the 95 partition
6) Set the 95 partition as active
7) Boot to 95
8 In BootMagic add the 98 Partition to the boot menu

Taken/referenced/credited from the following thread/users:
https://www.computing.net/answers/hardware/ho … s-98/67119.html

My Questions:

1) I am using PowerQuest Partition Magic 7 as well as its BootMagic : How do I hide a partition? In BootMagic there is an option to *enable* the Advanced Hiding partition, but I can't seem to find the actual settings to achieve this.

2) Both of the partitions that I have created are primary ones, with one active at a time (obviously). Is this the correct method? Or do I need to create a logical drive inside the extended partition?

C0deHunter wrote on 2020-04-27, 23:49:

1) I am using PowerQuest Partition Magic 7 as well as its BootMagic : How do I hide a partition? In BootMagic there is an option to *enable* the Advanced Hiding partition, but I can't seem to find the actual settings to achieve this.

You shouldn't have to hide the partitions at all if the active partition is set correctly.

2) Both of the partitions that I have created are primary ones, with one active at a time (obviously). Is this the correct method? Or do I need to create a logical drive inside the extended partition?

Win9x will not boot from a logical partition. Win2K should probably boot from a logical partition, though I've never been completely sure how it assigns its drive letters. It definitely won't be drive C, but there's nothing wrong with that.

But with the way you have things set up, there's no reason you need to have Win2K in a logical partition. If you only need four partitions, you might as well make them all primary. (Or have we left sweet reason behind at this point..?)

Does Win9x see multiple primary partitions? I think DOS does not. Then again, maybe seeing the other OS's partitions is not a requirement in this case.

Totally easy with xfdisk, I did this type of installations 100 times.

e.g. https://www.flickr.com/photos/94839221@N05/41 … 57683681646872/

the boot manager way is prob cleanest but depends what you use and how you do it - will determined how easy it is

the way i mentioned above - i have all my o.s. 's in their own partitions , they cant see each other and each o.s. is it own c drive (so it is like there only one c drive and o.s. on the system when booting into any windows or dos)

the boot manager i used lets me hide or show which partition can see what (if you want have shared drive/partition for all the o.s. to use, you can do that) - so each o.s. has it own and one c drive

i also have the boot manager install on it own partition so if want delete any o.s. and start again, it doesn't affect it - the boot manager can delete the o.s., re-partition/re-size and re-format the drive and change the file system

the way i did for my dos 6.22 and win 95 dual boot - same way - remember oldest to newest - in your case it would be win 95 first then win 98 then win 2k and the games partition anytime really - just swap out my o.s. 's with ones you want to use

1- use dos 6.22 fdisk to partition and format a c drive - 2 gb max for dos and i made another 2 gb extended partition for a d drive for this o.s. (4 gb total for hdd) - in your case use any partition program
2- installed dos 6.22 (oldest o.s.) as normal
3- use super fdisk to make a 15 mb partition for boot manager and use the rest for for win 95 (36 gb of hdd) (but set the boot manager partition to active and save)
3- Install boot manager (Acronis OS Selector 8 ) (use the advance option to install to the 15 mb partition you made)
4- let the boot manager see the dos o.s. and it will add it to menu
5- go into boot manager settings - click view and click operating systems- right click in the o.s. name in green (not the partition name) (in this case it is dos 6.22) and go to properties
6-go to partition tab and select what other partition you made including the boot manager one to hide from the dos 6.22
7- use super fdisk again and hide all the partitions (dos 6.22 and the boot manager) - so only the empty win95 partition is left and set that to active and save
8- install windows 95 as normal
9- use super fdisk to un-hide what you hid before and save and put the boot manager installation disc in computer
10 - let the boot manager disc boot up and select activate Acronis OS Selector and take out the disc when done
11- repeat step 5-6 for windows 95
12- that's it

my windows xp/vista/7 rig was sightly different since i choose to install each o.s. on the own hdd - so install that as normal except for xp when i partitioned that hdd i left 120 mb of space for the boot manager and unplugged the power cable from each hdd to install each o.s. as normal and once i finish that, i put the boot manager disc in the disc drive, shut off the computer, plug the power cables in each hdd and turned on the pc and let boot manager boot up and install to the 120mb partition i made earlier and done steps 5-6 from above for these o.s. and same result

I know you are going to have some crazy reason for having it up the way you did (folks around here always do), but for DOS 6.22 + Windows 95 dual boot (which is a near-pointless idea to start), the easiest way is just to install DOS, then install Win95 on top of that. Win95 will preserve the old DOS boot files for you, and you can always select to boot to DOS 6.22 in the startup menu.

Very very easy with xfdisk. Go and get a bootdisk for win9x or dos and put xfdisk on it.
Use XFDISK to make the partitions and use it's internal boot manager for choosing them.
I recommend that you activate "hide" the partitions from each other in the xfdisk.ini.

dr_st wrote on 2020-04-28, 14:08:

I know you are going to have some crazy reason for having it up the way you did (folks around here always do), but for DOS 6.22 + Windows 95 dual boot (which is a near-pointless idea to start), the easiest way is just to install DOS, then install Win95 on top of that. Win95 will preserve the old DOS boot files for you, and you can always select to boot to DOS 6.22 in the startup menu.

each to their own 😃

i like to have pure dos for older dos games (pre windows 95) and compatibly and keep windows 95 completely separate cause i never use dos mode in windows 95 or 98 or even ME (despite microsoft hiding it)

everyone has their own preferred ways and methods to their own madness 😂