multi booting

[pbuckne 0]

You've got questions, we've got answers, or the commercial goes.

 

I have a (wait for it) Dell PII 266 with 256 Meg of RAM and (count 'em) 2 WD Caviar 2.1 Gig harddrives. I have been playing with booting multiple operating systems off of it, and have succeeded in getting no more than two off the ground at a time. I am working on DOS 6.+, Win95b, WinNT, 98se, and 2k advanced server. Later additions might include BEos, a linux distribution or two, then 3x and possibly XP. The last OS'es would require better hardware, but that stuff grows overseas, or something like that.

 

Now, what would be the best boot loader/os loader for the job? At best I would hope to achieve a total of ten. Am I reaching, or is this do-able?

[adamvjackson 0]

You will need to map out your partitions, as at least dos and win95 need to be on the first primary partition. I'd recommend you get PartitionMagic, if you don't have it already. It includes BootMagic, a decent bootloader. Just plan carefully. Also, I don't think you have enough hard drive space for all the operating systems listed.

[pbuckne 0]

I am putting Dos and win95 first, that is good to know I was on the right track. Also, I am adding more harddrives via controller card later...

[adamvjackson 0]

Sounds good... you may want to make a diagram of what partitions will have what operating systems on it... that way it's easy to forsee problems.

[pbuckne 0]

Good idea, I was planning to name the partitions, DOS, win95, win98, etc... Glad to know I am on the right track.

[Grifta 0]

test

[pbuckne 0]

test...? Test the environment? ;(

[Cornholio 0]

If you want more info on multi-booting,check out this article at http://www.maximumpc.com/features/feature_2002-09-24.html

Someone has 37 operating systems on their computer! Fascinating article.