How is the boot.ini in that scenario? Did the boot loader copy the SCSI to the root directory of the active partition? And is the active partition the first one?

NJRoadfan wrote:

Does EZ-Drive or OnTrack Disk Manager support SCSI cards? They may be worth a shot to get around the BIOS limitation on the cards.

No, DDOs will not work with SCSI cards, as these are designed for ST-506/ESDI/IDE interface. The only way to fix SCSI card bios limitations is with a direct BIOS upgrade.

feipoa wrote:

9) Using scsi instead of multi in boot.ini did not help.

scsi() syntax will only work if you copy SCSI .sys NT4 card driver to active partition root with NTBOOTDD.SYS name.

feipoa wrote:

After installing Windows NT4, the system will not reboot after the first round or reboots. It just sits there after POST.

I tried this configuraiton with, both, C:\ as the active partition and with C:\ as a hidden partition and D: active. The result is the same - hangs after POST. If I cannot figure this out, I will have to settle for the, both, the Win95c and NT4 partitions at 4 GB each, with NT4 installed first. I've noticed that I can still create 3rd and 4th partitions which are accessible by Win95c, provided that NT4 creates them. In which case, I'll be suck with 4 partitions and loose out on the cleanliness of 2 large partitions.

You aren't even getting the NT boot loader? That is a bit unusual. I know my 486 running Windows 2000 takes forever to show the boot manager for some reason, so try waiting a minute or two. Its also entirely possible that NTLDR is having trouble loading key files if they fall beyond 8.4GB, the system still needs to load stuff in real mode before switching to protected mode (hal.dll, the kernel, SYSTEM hive of registry, and "critical" boot drivers like the SCSI card and file systems).

I would honestly go for a 3 partition setup

C: Windows 9x to 6GB or so
D: NT 4.0 from 6GB to the 8.4GB limit
Then partition out the reminder of the drive with FAT32 or NTFS. Don't forget you can use logical partitions in an extended partition. Microsoft officially recommends any partition after the boot partition for DOS/Win 9x to be in a logical container.

I agree, it is unusual. It takes so long to change one little factor that I'm going let this exercise rest. It would be easier to experiment with a faster setup just to figure out the work around for installing a 7.x GB Win95c FAT32 partition first, followed by a 7.x GB NT4 NTFS partition. Has anyone had success with this?

I decided that once I have to go beyond 2 partitions, then 3 or 4 is the same to me in that it breaks the neatness of the setup. Until I find a resolution to the above noted issue with installing the FAT32 partition first, I am going to settle on this configuration using the NT Boot Loader:

C: WinNT4 - NTFS - 4008 MB - System partition
D: Win95c - FAT32 - 4016 MB - System partition
E: NTFS - 60,000 MB or less - WinNT4's programs partition
F: FAT32 - 60,000 MB or less - Win95c's programs partition

This is a really large SCSI drive which is way overkill, but I do not have another one which is quiet. I do not use noisy SCSI drives in setups, but use them for clone backups.

Is there any benefit in using logical partitions for E: and F: in the above example as opposed to Primary partitions?

NT 4 has its own issues with a 4GB boundary
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/197295

More here: http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/bigdisk.htm

hyoenmadan wrote:

scsi() syntax will only work if you copy SCSI .sys NT4 card driver to active partition root with NTBOOTDD.SYS name.

Could you explain what you mean by this? I ran a search and did not find NTBOOTDD.SYS.

NJRoadfan wrote:

NT 4 has its own issues with a 4GB boundary
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/197295
More here: http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/bigdisk.htm

I think this is the problem I am running into - multi() doesn't like the NT4 partition to reside beyond 4 GB. Issue was fixed with SP5, however, SP5 comes after installation and I am having the problem during installation. Using scsi() in boot.ini instead of multi() does not have this issue, however I am not quite sure of the proper procedure to implement scsi(). I suppose following the slip stream info on bearwindows would also work because SP6 would already be in use during installation of NT4.

I could not boot with scsi() simply following this MS article. https://support.microsoft.com/EN-US/kb/102873
If I understand hyoenmadan correctly, I must copy arrow.sys to d:\

Its annoying that you can't slipstream NT service packs. The only way around that is to install on another machine and apply SP6a.

As for using scsi() in boot.ini, you have to copy arrow.sys to the same root directory as NTLDR (this is your boot partition, the one marked "active") and rename it NTBOOTDD.SYS. Assuming NT 4.0 is on the first partition and your SCSI drive has a SCSI ID of 0, the ARC loader syntax should be:

scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT40

This might be helpful for updating your NT 4.0 install media with updated drivers and service packs.

http://bearwindows.zcm.com.au/winnt4.htm#p1

I have already abandoned my work in achieving this outcome (for now). My HDD has been setup with 4 GB NT4 and 4 GB W95c. Since I am not using a 3D accelerator card on my VLB system, I require a lot less hard drive space as my PCI systems as the 3D games on those systems required a lot of space. This is my justification for giving up at least 😉

That bearwindows guide seems like a lot of effort and untold frustration. If I pick this work up again on a faster system, I would first try the scsi() approach before trying the bearwindows guide.

I built a NT 4 SP6 "slipstreamed" CD and gave it a shot. Much to my surprise it boots and runs on a Core2Duo! It installs the Win 2k loader by default so it should be FAT32 friendly as well.

Did you follow the bearwindows guide exactly?

Could you install Win9x on the first partition (FAT32), making it 7.8 GB or larger, then install NT4 to the second NTFS partition?

I'll give it a shot. Keep in mind this machine is running SATA in IDE compatibility mode, not SCSI.

/\ And his BIOS probably doesn't have the same 8GB limit your SCSI ROM does.

NJRoadfan: Were you able to give it a shot?