Your main concerns will be with DOS and Win31 here.

S3 is probably better than others for pure DOS compatibility. For Windows 3.1 you NEED a card that has drivers available for it otherwise it won't work properly at all.

Try to find the best graphics card you can that has drivers spanning from Win31 to WinXP. Maybe nVidia TNT2? (which also has great DOS compatibility btw)

Sound: DOS really needs an ISA sound card to work properly with sound. But the CT5880 does have DOS drivers to emulate an ISA Sound Blaster card, so the support will probably be "good enough" for many games, especially later ones.

Dual booting in general: Create three PRIMARY partitions using FreeDOS FDISK. Format the first and second partitions using the FreeDOS or Win98 FORMAT utility. Install Windows 98SE on the second partition (D:), then do a "SYS A: C:" to install DOS on the first one (otherwise Win98 refuses to install). Note that the DOS partition is bootable now, but you can't select to boot from it because the second partition is the active one. After all this, THEN you install Windows XP, on the third partition. It *should* autodetect the other two partitions and give you menu options when you boot to select which OS you want. If it doesn't, you can manually configure this using msconfig.

Edit: with this arrangement you have three primary OS's: DOS/Win31 (on the same partition), Win98, and WinXP.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2019-12-30, 17:48:

Your main concerns will be with DOS and Win31 here. […]
Show full quote

Your main concerns will be with DOS and Win31 here.

S3 is probably better than others for pure DOS compatibility. For Windows 3.1 you NEED a card that has drivers available for it otherwise it won't work properly at all.

Try to find the best graphics card you can that has drivers spanning from Win31 to WinXP. Maybe nVidia TNT2? (which also has great DOS compatibility btw)

Sound: DOS really needs an ISA sound card to work properly with sound. But the CT5880 does have DOS drivers to emulate an ISA Sound Blaster card, so the support will probably be "good enough" for many games, especially later ones.

Dual booting in general: Create three PRIMARY partitions using FreeDOS FDISK. Format the first and second partitions using the FreeDOS or Win98 FORMAT utility. Install Windows 98SE on the second partition (D:), then do a "SYS A: C:" to install DOS on the first one (otherwise Win98 refuses to install). Note that the DOS partition is bootable now, but you can't select to boot from it because the second partition is the active one. After all this, THEN you install Windows XP, on the third partition. It *should* autodetect the other two partitions and give you menu options when you boot to select which OS you want. If it doesn't, you can manually configure this using msconfig.

Edit: with this arrangement you have three primary OS's: DOS/Win31 (on the same partition), Win98, and WinXP.

hmm... thanks for the infos, first of all.
So let's see if I got it right: say I have a memory card and an SSD, primary and secondary masters. I should use FreeDOS FDISK (why not the Win98 CD?) and create one primary partition on the memory card and two on the SSD.
Then I would have installed DOS first, Win3.11 on top of that and the others from oldest to newest. I guess the method you told me allows for all the OSes to be visible and / or bootable?

The method I described is for making all three OS's reside on the same disk.

You could install DOS/Win31 on the memory card and the other OS's on the SSD, and that would also work. Probably would be easier too but you wouldn't get the global menu at bootup where you can select all 3 OS's. You'd have to select between memory card and SSD first at the BIOS, then the Windows XP menu would let you select between Win98 and WinXP.

There is a trick you can use to prevent Windows 98 / XP from messing up your DOS 6.22 partition with LFN. Change the partition type to 0x60 and at offset 4E610 from the beginning of the partition edit the following:

74 06 26 80 3F *06* 75 06 0A F6 74 3A FE CE 83 C3 becomes

74 06 26 80 3F *60* 75 06 0A F6 74 3A FE CE 83 C3

Do not edit IO.SYS instead, it would be relocated preventing booting.

By the way be careful with those cheap SATA<->IDE converters, I had some bad luck with one of them. Instead I use a mSATA<->2.5 IDE board (JM 20330) plus a 2.5<->3.5 IDE converter. It works very well with TRIM support too (not that it matters a lot with old OSes), see Re: mSATA ssd adaptor in old pc

As for the boot manager there are many possibilities, I like the "mbr" program: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/xenial/ma … tall-mbr.8.html

It's a simple MBR boot sector that allows you to boot from partition 1 to 4. As for the video card I currently use the GeForce 6800 128MB. It works fine under Windows 98 and XP, and has no problem with DOS games too.

For best audio compatibility, I would recommend you get a KT7A instead with eg. a ES1868F. It has worked great for me in DOS and has native drivers in Windows 98 SE and XP. Some models can be fitted with a Dreamblaster X2 for MIDI sound.

Put Win98 and WinXP on the main drive. Install Win98 first, then WinXP and you will not need any third-party bootloaders.

Put DOS&Win3.x on a CompactFlash card and connect it (via CompactFlash to IDE) only when you actually want to use DOS/Win3.x. I bet it won't be a lot.

XOSL works great for multibooting DOS/Win9x/XP. It supports partition hiding as well.

You can install DOS, Win3.x and Win98 on the same partition, the Win98 boot menu should give you an extra "Boot to the previous MSDOS version" choice.

cde wrote on 2020-01-01, 15:17:

There is a trick you can use to prevent Windows 98 / XP from messing up your DOS 6.22 partition with LFN. Change the partition t […]
Show full quote

There is a trick you can use to prevent Windows 98 / XP from messing up your DOS 6.22 partition with LFN. Change the partition type to 0x60 and at offset 4E610 from the beginning of the partition edit the following:

74 06 26 80 3F *06* 75 06 0A F6 74 3A FE CE 83 C3 becomes

74 06 26 80 3F *60* 75 06 0A F6 74 3A FE CE 83 C3

Do not edit IO.SYS instead, it would be relocated preventing booting.

OK... and how am I supposed to do this? Do I need to edit some system file? Sorry if I ask but it seems a bit advanced for my knowledge.

Plasma wrote on 2020-01-01, 17:01:

XOSL works great for multibooting DOS/Win9x/XP. It supports partition hiding as well.

Thanks, I'll check it out. I didn't know about this program but it seems interesting!

lolo799 wrote on 2020-01-01, 17:13:

You can install DOS, Win3.x and Win98 on the same partition, the Win98 boot menu should give you an extra "Boot to the previous MSDOS version" choice.

As far as I can remember, yes, it does just that.
I'm just a bit concerned about drive letters (how many C: drives can I possibly have?!) and if I'm not mistaken, Windows 9x does not give you the chance to install on anything other than C: ... But if I already have a separate C: with DOS and / or Win3x on it, it's bound to be a problem!

You have to make two separate primary partitions to install DOS and Win98 dual booting. Only the FreeDOS FDISK tool lets you do this. And you have to install Win98 first, otherwise it will complain that your PC already has an OS, and refuse to install.

Both OS’s will see themselves as being on the C: drive, and the other OS as being on the D: drive. So they will be swapped when you boot into DOS vs Win98.

I have a boot manager that lets me “hide” a partition from the others, which lets me get around having to install Win98 first, and makes it easier to create a boot menu.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2020-01-02, 16:56:

You have to make two separate primary partitions to install DOS and Win98 dual booting. Only the FreeDOS FDISK tool lets you do this. And you have to install Win98 first, otherwise it will complain that your PC already has an OS, and refuse to install.

That's not true. The Win9x installer recognizes "Previous version of MS-DOS" if it's installed before that, as mentioned by lolo799. It may be that some specific setup CDs will refuse to install over anything other than a clean partition, but if so - that's a license issue, not a technical issue.

DeadnightWarrior wrote on 2020-01-02, 09:11:

if I'm not mistaken, Windows 9x does not give you the chance to install on anything other than C:

Again, not accurate. The boot loader and boot files will be on C:, the Windows directory can be on any partition, and the Program Files / My Documents will be created on the same partition where you put \Windows.

I know this from experience, dr_st, I’m not just spouting off randomly.

My method only came about because it was the only way that worked, after trying everything else.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2020-01-02, 16:56:

I have a boot manager that lets me “hide” a partition from the others, which lets me get around having to install Win98 first, and makes it easier to create a boot menu.

What boot manager do you use?

keenmaster486 wrote on 2020-01-02, 18:34:

I know this from experience, dr_st, I’m not just spouting off randomly.

Like I said, it may be an issue of some specific versions. I recall that in Win9x era there were "upgrade" versions, "retail" versions and then I think there were OEM versions that were only ever supposed to be distributed with new PCs; those might throw a fit if you try to install it over an existing DOS installation.

What I said comes from experience as well. For a brief period of time I ran Win95 (and I think later Win98) installed over DOS, and I had the 'Previous MS-DOS Version' working just fine. Then at some point I realized I didn't need it, and did a fresh install of Win98 (98 SE at that point).

Now, whether the 2K/XP installer can preserve both the Win9x and its "previous DOS version", I don't know, since I never tried. I guess it should, since technically, it's Win9x which does the voodoo with the 'Previous MS-DOS', so as long as the Win9x boot files are intact, things should work, and then you can have DOS, Win9x and WinXP on the same system without having to resort to third-party tools. However, I still stand by your original recommendation (which I echoed) - to install DOS/Win3.x on a separate, removable card, since it's unlikely they'll be used much. And then you don't need any ghastly FAT16 partitions on the main drive.

You can install it on top of your "previous DOS version".

But if you have two primary partitions on your hard drive, and the first one already has DOS on it, and you attempt to install Windows 98SE on the second partition (I think it happens with Win95 too), it will complain about there already being an OS on your computer, and refuse to install.

I believe I've tried it with OEM and retail disks.

It has to do with Microsoft never anticipating that a hard drive might have two primary partitions.

douglar wrote on 2020-01-02, 18:36:

What boot manager do you use?

It's this one here: https://www.bttr-software.de/products/bootmgr/

OK folks, I'm already having trouble with the sata ssd...
I purchased this SSD:
https://www.amazon.com/KingDian-Internal-Soli … 796&sr=8-3&th=1
and this SATA - IDE adapter:
https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B07TBDKD2F/r … 0?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The adapter has a jumper set to "master". It is connected to the primary IDE channel with a regular ATA66 80 wires cable:
https://i.imgur.com/hRtpFQ1.jpg

The BIOS detects the drive correctly with "auto" (shows up as 60Gb drive).

I can create partitions with FDISK (both Win98 CD and FreeDOS):
https://i.imgur.com/FyxuSxy.jpg

However the drive cannot be formatted: FreeDOS throws an "error 55 - locked" and Win98 can't even see the drive:
https://i.imgur.com/f6bjkCu.jpg

I also tried booting GParted Live (the "i686" version which should work on a PC this old) but it kernel panics before getting to the main program.

What am I doing wrong here?

keenmaster486 wrote on 2020-01-02, 22:53:

But if you have two primary partitions on your hard drive...
...
It has to do with Microsoft never anticipating that a hard drive might have two primary partitions.

That much may be true. I never had two primary partitions on a hard drive back then. One does not need two primary partitions to have a DOS/Windows multiboot. In the beginning, though, it seemed like you were claiming that it is not possible at all to have a DOS/Win9x multiboot without third party tools, whereas you meant that there is no way to install it side-by-side with DOS under this specific set of circumstances. Maybe I misunderstood.