Ok...first off... yes im aware its 3.11, so STFU!!! :laugh:

I found my old windows 3.11 floppies laying around (6 total) and want to install it as a secondary os on my comp.

Im currently running windows xp pro. I have a 40gb hdd.
Relizing i didnt have a floppy drive on this comp i put all the files from the floppys onto a cd from my other comp (im just 2 lazy to switch out the floppy drive, but i will if i gotta.)

Now my XP partition is running NTFS and i used partition magic 8 to create a logical 500mb FAT16 partition (i dunno if what iv done so far is right or what...it just looked good at the time :))

Now i need help installing the actual OS. Since i cant boot to DOS in xp i dunno what to do next...

Also, after i do get it installed, how will i b abil to boot to the 3.11 install? I guess ill need some sort of boot selector?

TIA

Win3.1X need to sit on top of DOS, so on your FAT16 partition, you need to format it with the DOS system files first, I cant remember that well, but you really should have a full DOS installation as there are some system files req'd to run Windows, then as you said, still need a boot manager to control your boot orders.

HTH

Ok, so where do i get these DOS files? Can they be downloaded? Or are they on the floppys? Or, if it matters, i have my windows ME cd (which still uses DOS, right?)

Or is there an option somewhere in windows to install DOS?

Also, what boot manager would you recamend?

Srry, im new to this dual boot thing ;)

Ok...i got it installed.

I used the ME cd to "emulate" DOS and installed it on the partition.

Now i need a way to boot to it...

Ok, baq to square 1...

How do i go about installing DOS?

Kyle
You first need to boot manager, and the MS/PC/DR-DOS installation floppies, when you set this FAT16 to be the boot partition, it will boot up asking for an operating system, now its time to pop in the first diskette of the DOS setup file.

If you dont have the full set of DOS diskette, you can cheat by downloading a bootdisk for MSDOS 5 or 6.xx from ww.bootdisk.com, after its booted up (as instructed above), type FDISK to create a FAT16 partition, then FORMAT C:/S to format and transfer the system files across.

HTH

duffy, he hasn't got a floppy drive - "Relizing i didnt have a floppy drive on this comp"

Kyle, if you really want 3.1, personally, I would just buy a floppy.

They are only cheap and it would make life so much easier.

Fat16 was written specifically for floppies, so trying to install it from CD makes it rather complex.

It can still be done, but in my opinion, I don't consider floppies obsolete.

If you really want to continue on the same path, you would find it easier to format the partition first with your XP CD to FAT32, then convert it to FAT16 using something like PARAGON PARTITION MANAGER (http://www.partition-manager.com/).

Then you should be able to use the setup.exe file on your 3.1 CD, assuming FAT16 can access your CD Rom.


'Tis the season to be jolly. http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung0903/weihnachten/xmas-smiley-003.gif