Dual Boot with Win95?

[melvin]

I currently have windows95 installed on my pc. Is there a way to install winNT so that both OSes can exist together(Dual Boot)? If so, how can this be done?

[booghie]

Yes there is a way, and it's very simple too. All you have to do is set up two partitions, one for Win95 and one for NT.

During the install NT asks which partition you want it installed on. At the same time it checks which Os's are installed and sets up a list which you choose from at startup.

[ddessureault]

Just install your Win NT on the same partition by typing WINNT. If Win 95 is already present on the partition where you want to install NT, the installation will ask you if you want to keep the current version of Windows. A new file called Winboot will then allow you to make the choice between NT or 95 on boot.

[ronimiller]

Is it indeed true that you can install NT on a hard disk partitioned only for WIndows 95? I thought it had to be NTFS partition or similar. (not arguing just dont know)
PS once you have the two operating systems on there... how do you get rid of NT...

[Helvis]

In order to install NT 4 on a system with Windows 95 you must be using fat 16. NT cannot read Fat 32. If you run the winnt.exe with the /b switch (winnt.exe /b)it will skip the making of the boot floppies (they are not necessary). The file that allows you to dual boot is a file called boot.ini and you can edit it to add or remove various boot options (I don't reccomend doing this if you are a novice). If you want to remove NT 4 from your system and go back to 95 only....you must delete the following files from the root directory of C drive:
NTLDR
BOOT.INI
BOOTSECT.DOS
NTDETECT.COM
NTBOOTDD.SYS (ONLY PRESENT IF USING SCSI DRIVES)
pagefile.sys

Then you can delete the winnt directory. You should delete this stuff after you have booted up to Windows 95. Then you will have to shutdown the computer and boot it with a Windows 95 startup disk....make sure the sys command is on this disk and when you boot you will have to sys the drive (copy the system files from your boot disk to the hard drive) by typing "sys c:" at the dos prompt. After you sys the drive you can boot to the hard drive like NT was never there. Good luck and remember to backup before goofing around with this stuff.

P.S. Also be aware that NT is very finicky (<-spelling?) about the hardware that is used in the system, it is very possible that you will not be able to get your modem and other peripherals working in NT. You may want to visit the MS website and check to see if your hardware is on the Hardeware Compatability List (HCL) and is certified to work with NT.

[Helvis]

I forgot to mention that when you are removing NT from a dual boot system as described above, you should make sure that your view in Windows Explorer is showing all files and extensions (click view and then options in Windows Explorer and take the check mark out of "hide file extensions of known file types" and put a bullet in "Show all files".