Will this work? Boot a XP machine to dos with external HD?

tj173 · Post by **tj173** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 6:33 pm

Got a tech question before I invest in an external HD. I am well aware of the no-no's with programming with RSS in Windows. I had an old laptop that I could still boot in dos mode and it worked fine untill it took a crap. So, I bought a new laptop with XP home and of course I can't boot into dos mode. I don't want to go through the trouble of formatting and partitioning, so I thought why not buy an external HD. Format that with either a dos OS or Win98 which can still boot to dos with a boot disk. When I boot my laptop I have the option of booting to a USB device.

Anyone think this will work aside from the fact that the laptop is not an old P-1 or 486?

Thanks,

Post by **wavetar** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 6:46 pm

Well, the trouble with either DOS or Win9x is that it needs to be installed on the C: drive. They won't boot from another partition like Win2k & XP.

That said, you can certainly add the drive, format it as FAT, and use a DOS boot disk. You can then install & run any of your DOS RSS from the external drive.

Todd

kydeputy1463 · Post by **kydeputy1463** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 7:01 pm

You still have to take into consideration the speed of the machine.

ExKa|iBuR · Post by **ExKa|iBuR** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 8:50 pm

Try this:

If you have a new computer, you can tell it to boot off of a USB drive (those small key-chain sized things)...often holding 128 megs or more. Install DOS6.22 on there and put your RSS and codeplugs on it...anytime you want to use RSS or DOS, just shut down your PC, plug the "drive" into a USB slot, and reboot!

OX · Post by OX » Sat Feb 07, 2004 8:59 pm

Or leave your drive formatted as FAT32 instead of NTFS, create an emergency boot disk, modify the autoexec.bat and cornfig.sys files on the floppy, delete the programs that you don't need and go that route. That's what I do if I need to program from my desktop.

Or go to http://www.bootdisk.comand download a DOS 6.22 boot floppy image and create one from it.

fire-medic8104 · Post by **fire-medic8104** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:03 pm

If you use system commander you don't need to format the drive. Just install system commander and it will partition the drive for you and then install dos.

That way dos and windows can't see each other so to speak and it will work like a champ.

If you are going to have a machine with windows and dos in each, to me this is the only way to go is to have a dual boot hard drive.

Just my opinion.

RADIOMAN2002 · Post by **RADIOMAN2002** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 10:16 am

To really boot off 98 use the setup disk.

ka7wnf · Post by **ka7wnf** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 1:10 pm

For my DOS only RSS, (Kenwood) on my Win2K machine I boot it off a 6.22 boot disk. Pop in the floppy with the RSS and it works great.