{"id":3840,"date":"2022-03-20T03:12:24","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T11:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/?p=3840"},"modified":"2022-03-20T03:20:07","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T11:20:07","slug":"triple-booting-windows-7-xp-and-dos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/2022\/03\/20\/triple-booting-windows-7-xp-and-dos\/","title":{"rendered":"Triple-Booting Windows 7, XP and DOS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Sometimes I need to do a little bit of retro-computing (not with virtual machines) to support some ancient hardware. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As far as compatibility is concerned, I have yet run across any weird piece of software that specifically requires Windows ME, 2000, Vista or Windows 8 to run that cannot be run with an OS one step up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Windows 98 SE generally displaces anything from Windows 95 to Windows 98.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Windows 2000\/XP usually run anything that are meant for NT starting from 4.0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Windows NT 3.51 usually run Win32s programs that works on Win 3.1, except it&#8217;s way more stable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Installation Order<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The OSes should be installed from old to new:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>DOS\/Win 3.1 + 98 (SE)<\/li><li>XP<\/li><li>Windows 7<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reorganize boot menu<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Windows XP installs a NT52 style (NTLDR) boot menu that recognizes DOS as a partition to boot. Windows 7 installer will install a NT60 style (BCD) boot menu that that the NTLDR loader as an OS (it&#8217;s called Earlier version of Windows) instead of directly booting to Windows XP. This means to get to Windows XP \/ DOS, you&#8217;ll have to select twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can fix this by EasyBCD, which rebuilds the bootloader options for the installed OSes. Doing it with bcdedit is a major pain in the arse. There are some quirks to watch out for in the process no matter which path you choose:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>You might need to boot into safe mode if the current BCD is locked.<\/li><li>Whatever OS that you are currently in calls itself C: and everybody else shifted according to the partition order.<\/li><li>When setting drive letter for the boot menu item, observe the drive letter scheme currently seen by the host OS. i.e. use C: when referring to the currently booted OS <\/li><li>Do not take up on EasyBCD&#8217;s offer to detect the drive letter automatically. They are likely to be wrong guesses that won&#8217;t boot, likely because of the shifting C: issue.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>While you are at EasyBCD, it also offer the option of booting ISO (optical drives) and IMA (floppy) images, which I find it convenient for making the PC a tech service station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Note that the DOS menu provided by EasyBCD went through an extra layer of indirection called GRUB4DOS, so it&#8217;s not as native as going through NT60 (BCD) &gt; NT52 (NTLDR) &gt; DOS in the sense that it installed foreign stuff not made by Microsoft such as Grub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tip about bcdedit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Some old versions of bcdedit&#8217;s \/? menu did not tell you about the \/store switch, which is necessary to manipulate foreign BCD files instead of the host BCD (that you used to boot to the current Windows you are working in).<\/li><\/ul>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div><p id=\"pvc_stats_3840\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"3840\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p><div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes I need to do a little bit of retro-computing (not with virtual machines) to support some ancient hardware. As far as compatibility is concerned, I have yet run across any weird piece of software that specifically requires Windows ME, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/2022\/03\/20\/triple-booting-windows-7-xp-and-dos\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_3840\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"3840\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3840"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3858,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3840\/revisions\/3858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}