Hi! This being my first post, guess I should say hi....

Anyhow, I'm gonna be doing the format C:\ routine again fairly soon and I wanted to put DOS on my second HD in a 6-10 GB partition. The reason I am setting this system up is b/c under XP, DOSBox just cannot run 3D games like Dark Forces and Blood and Mechwarrior 2 and I really want to have them so I can play them. I'll be using XP Pro as my main OS and DOS to play games and the whatnot. I also have a WinXP Home version that I will use to format the FAT32 partition for DOS.

Firstly, how do I make it dual boot? I have linux atm, but it comes with its own bootloader etc etc. Where do I get a *free* bootloader that will let me start DOS or XP?

Secondly, how hard is it to install drivers in DOS? Never done it before b/c the only DOS machine I ever used already had all of it installed.

Thirdly, how will my system run under DOS? I have a mid-low end system (specs posted below), but it still may run all the games I want to play way too fast. If that's the case, how can I slow them down?

I was thinking of using FreeDOS for my version of DOS. If that's not a good idea, what should I use? Where can it be found?

I also found a DOS web browser incase I am in DOS and need something from the net real quick. What, if any, are good, secure DOS web browsers?

System Specs:
AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 1.67Ghz
1.25 GB DDR (PC2100)
128MB DDR G4orce 5200 Ultra (sucks, I know)
ASUS Mobo A7V8X-X
SBLive! 5.1
Random Linksys NIC
US Robotics 56k analog modem (I use DSL/Cable mostly though)
-thinking of getting some old Doom modem games going, LOL

Thanks for the help guys, I'm really just at the info gathering stage right now, but I appreciate anything/everything you can contribute. :kosta:

dark forces and blood run under xp with vdmsound. as for the dos choice, go for either ms-dos 7.10 or freedos

I wouldn't recommend running dos on a system like that. First of all you're sure to have some speed issues, as dos wasn't designed to run on a system anywhere near as powerful as the one you have. This could probably be helped with a program like moslo, though.

You're also gonna need a diskmanager program as the hard drive you plan to use is too big for dos. You could still use it of course, but you'd only be able to use about 512(?) mB.

As far as the actual dual boot setup would be done, I'm not sure. I never made a dos/xp dual boot, so I can't help you there.

It should be possible, but I'd recommend getting an old computer (maybe a 166 GH or something like that), which shouldn't be very expensive, and running dos exclusively on that.

Oh yeah, the drivers thing. It isn't very difficult installing drivers in dos. You just write them into the config.sys file. You should be able to google a guide.

I believe freeDOS supports very large hard drives. I'm not sure, looking it up right now.

Also, VDMSound is just like DOSBox, only slower on my machine. Dunno why, but I can't even play Tyrian with VDMSound, while in DOSBox it is playable (however, not enjoyable b/c, again, it is sloooow).

Thanks and keep it coming!

Don't know about freedos, but dos 7.1 doesn't support partitions larger than 2 GB, if i remember correctly.I also suggest getting an old computer because the combination of a 2000+ proc + old DOS is unpredictable, to say the least
As to dos browsers i know only one, arachne(http://home.arachne.cz/).Haven't tried it though

If you want pure DOS, just install Windows 98 SE as the second operating system, as it has the pure DOS mode, but also can utilize FAT32 partitions, large disks and new hardware properly. Some older Windows games will also run better in Win98SE than in WinXP. Win98SE really allows you to enjoy both worlds.