Multi-Boot OS/2 and DOS

[Dan Wellman]

I often see people mentioning that they set up their HD to boot either
DOS or WARP. How is this done -- I don't own WARP yet and probably will
soon, right now I've got one partition only. Does this mean I should
partition the drive? Does OS/2 have a multi-boot utility?

Thanks,
Dan

--
Dan Wellman Synthpop Fan, Bloom County Nut
email: wel...@uiuc.edu http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~wellman/
- I'm always looking to talk to people who make synthpop music for fun!

[Michael Bonetsmueller]

wel...@ux5.cso.uiuc.edu (Dan Wellman) writes:

>I often see people mentioning that they set up their HD to boot either
>DOS or WARP. How is this done -- I don't own WARP yet and probably will
>soon, right now I've got one partition only. Does this mean I should
>partition the drive? Does OS/2 have a multi-boot utility?

>Thanks,
>Dan

It is done by a boot manager. At the very beginning of Booting you get
a menu asking you either to boot from your OS/2-Partition or any other
bootable Partition you have on any of your HDs (it works fine with
Linux, too). Setup and Installing of the Boot Manager is fairly easy,
and as far as I know there are no problems. (perhaps with NT and/or
Chicago?)

Hope this one helps you a little bit,

michael.

Michael Bonetsmueller
bogo...@rgb.informatik.th-darmstadt.de

[Peter Kaufman]

In post from Dan Wellman to All we read:

>
>From: wel...@ux5.cso.uiuc.edu (Dan Wellman)
>Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.apps
>Subject: Multi-Boot OS/2 and DOS
>
>I often see people mentioning that they set up their HD to boot either
>DOS or WARP. How is this done -- I don't own WARP yet and probably will
>soon, right now I've got one partition only. Does this mean I should
>partition the drive? Does OS/2 have a multi-boot utility?
>
>Thanks,
>Dan

Yes, it is called Boot Manager and is probably the most popular
setup amongst OS/2 users. It's fully explained in the instructions.

Yes, you will need to create extra partitions, so have everything
backed up first (twice!). You can create them, and if you are not
familiar with the process probably _better_ to create them, as part
of the install process.

... Conversation is the art of telling people more than you know.
---
* SPEED 2.0a #1565 *

[Roderick Smith]

Dan Wellman (wel...@ux5.cso.uiuc.edu) wrote:
: I often see people mentioning that they set up their HD to boot either

: DOS or WARP. How is this done -- I don't own WARP yet and probably will
: soon, right now I've got one partition only. Does this mean I should
: partition the drive? Does OS/2 have a multi-boot utility?

This is done in one of two ways, and the answer to your subsequent
questions differs depending upon the method used:

1) Dual Boot. This is the default method, and if you get REALLY nit-picky,
doesn't actually do what you say. Specifically, you can't choose which
OS to boot when you power on the computer [which I infer from the words
"...to boot either DOS or WARP..."]; you boot into whichever OS you last
used, and can then run a program to boot the other OS. In Dual Boot,
both OS/2 and DOS reside on the C: drive, so the typical new user
doesn't need to re-partition.
2) Boot Manager. This method does require re-partitioning. DOS goes on
drive C:, OS/2 goes on any other partition, and a 1MB partition is
created for Boot Manager itself. The computer technically boots the
Boot Manager partition, which pops up a menu that allows you to select
which OS to boot (DOS, OS/2, or anything else on the machine). The
Boot Manager then passes control to the boot routine of whichever OS
you selected.

In general, Dual Boot is easier to install but more difficult to use,
since you can't select which OS to boot at power-on time. Dual Boot is
also a bit more dangerous to use, since it mucks with the partition's
boot information with every OS switch, and if a disk error strikes at
that time, you can have a VERY BAD situation on your hands. (This is
rare, but a few people have encountered it.)

Personally, I prefer Boot Manager; but the hassle of installing it may
not be worth it for many people, particularly those who aren't sure if
they'll be keeping OS/2. It is possible to re-install OS/2 with Boot
Manager after gaining some experience with OS/2 using Dual Boot, and this
can actually result in better decisions about partition size and whatnot
than would be the case going straight to Boot Manager. (It's also
possible to go from Boot Manager to Dual Boot, of course.) Switching can
be a pain, of course, but no more so that re-partitioning for Boot
Manager in the first place. So use whichever you're more comfortable with
initially.

There is a utility available, called FIPS, that will shrink a FAT
partition, thus making room for new partitions and Boot Manager. This
utility does have disadvantages (namely, it doesn't change the allocation
block size, it requires that the drive be defragged first, and of course
any such modification is bound to carry some risk), but it's worth
considering, especially if you just want to squeeze out enough space for
Boot Manager and an OS/2 boot partition. Because of the allocation block
size issue, I wouldn't recommend using FIPS to, say, shrink a 300MB
partition to 100MB. An OS/2 utility to do this and more (including
converting FAT to HPFS without data loss) was recently announced, but
it's not available yet and will cost over $100, if I recall correctly.
(FIPS is either shareware or freeware, I don't recall which, and is
available from the usual DOS ftp sites.)

--
--Rod Smith
RSM...@PSYCH.COLORADO.EDU

[Rogerio Theodoro de Brito]

> I often see people mentioning that they set up their HD to boot either
> DOS or WARP. How is this done -- I don't own WARP yet and probably will
> soon, right now I've got one partition only. Does this mean I should
> partition the drive? Does OS/2 have a multi-boot utility?

Yes! For having a multiboot utility, you have two
options:

- To use Dual Boot (BLEARGH!). Using this, you don't have
to partition you drive again... To switch for a DOS boot,
you only have to type the command BOOT /DOS at a
prompt... Then you boot DOS... And to boot OS/2 back you
type the command BOOT /OS2... It's very simple but... I
don't like it...

- A better choice is to install OS/2 Boot Manager... But
to get this option you MUST repartition your first hard
drive...

AbracOS/2, Rogerio Brito

P.S.: Feel free to correct my broken and poor English...

[Rogerio Theodoro de Brito]

> It is done by a boot manager. At the very beginning of Booting you get
> a menu asking you either to boot from your OS/2-Partition or any other
> bootable Partition you have on any of your HDs (it works fine with
> Linux, too). Setup and Installing of the Boot Manager is fairly easy,
> and as far as I know there are no problems. (perhaps with NT and/or
> Chicago?)

Ok, but you can have OS/2 Dual Boot, can't you?

AbracOS/2, Rogerio Brito

P.S.: Sorry by the BAD English...

[awh...@hk.net]

In <3d1nvi$j...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, wel...@ux5.cso.uiuc.edu (Dan Wellman) writes:
>I often see people mentioning that they set up their HD to boot either
>DOS or WARP. How is this done -- I don't own WARP yet and probably will
>soon, right now I've got one partition only. Does this mean I should
>partition the drive? Does OS/2 have a multi-boot utility?
>

My piece of advice is: "If you want to run 2 or more operating systems on your machine
then you should use Boot manager."
Don't try the dual boot feature, that could lead you into trouble if you have something
go wrong.

Unfortuneately you have to repartition your drive for boot manager to be installed. This
means back-up...sigh...of all your data.

The advantage is the ability to add more OS's later (Linux) without re-partitioning the drive.

This is my experiance.

Hope it helps
________________________________________________________________
Anthony White, Hong Kong
E-Mail: awh...@hk.net
WWW Home page: http://www.hk.net/~awhite/awhite.html
________________________________________________________________