Hey all, I am running Windows XP and am trying to play around with other operating systems. I have installed Linux (Fedora Core 1) onto a seprate partition (obviously) along with a swap file partition for it. I also want to install Dos 5.0 and maybe Win 3.11 on a seperate partition i created that is currently unformatted. The problem is, when I boot with the Dos install disk, I get a message saying "Dos cannot be installed on your hard disk because the primary partition table entries on your disk are already in use." Since I've only got 4 partitions, one of which is the partition I'm trying to install to, this should not be possible. I've tried using MBRtool to edit the partition table entry (making it 00, unused), but it doesn't seem to do anything. I used BootIT, as well as Partition Magic 8 to create, delete, and move my partitions around until I got them the way I want. I have no idea anymore, I've tried everything I can imagine might work, and nothing. Please help! I need my Dos!

Couple of ideas : DOS must install on the first unhidden primary partition. So hide all other primarys when trying to install DOS. I always use first primary for DOS/WFWG, but any should work if other primarys are hidden. Second idea : primary partitions must be created in order ... that is : the entries in the table must point in order going up the disk. So if you created a primary ... then moved it up then created another below it ... system error. The table entries must be exchanged in this case. Hope this sheds some light. Best

Another point. DOS 5 partitions should be FAT16 (2 Gigs or less in size).

No, that didn't seem to work either. I hid the first primary partition (my Win XP partition, 27 GB). The second partition is the unformatted partition (500Mb) I want to install Dos onto. I got the same message when installing Dos. I even tried hiding the other 2 partitions, but Partition Magic wouldn't let me. I assume because they are the Linux and swap partitions. These are after the unformatted partition on the disk. Also, I can't seem to boot to Linux now, i'm not sure what I did, but I even reinstalled it with a fresh format on that partition, and I get a message that it can't mount the ext3 file system, and hangs. Any ideas there either? Anything will help. Thanx.

Another note. DOS may not be able to start if the partition is in an area greater than cylinder 1024. You might try deleting the 500 MB partition, move the XP partition up, recreate the 500 MB partition at the beginning of the drive.

I suspect that 27 gigs out from the beginning of the drive is way, way beyond the limit for dos , even if it's a primary partition.. Unless you use partition magic to free up something like the first 2 gigs at the beginning of the XP partition, i don't expect you'll be able to install dos at all. Dos needs to be within a certain number of cylinders from the beginning of the drive itself - although i'm not sure of the exact number, i know it's way smaller than 27 gigs.. I'm pretty sure that you can select the first part of your XP partition and convert it to a fat 16 primary, though, in Partition magic, as i mentioned earlier.. Should work then....

Yes, it's 7.8 GB from the front of the drive limit for DOS 6.22 WFWG total, DOS 5.0 may be smaller. And to avoid problems with other OS (such as older linux or OS/2) all primarys should start within the first 7.8 GB. If you do as others suggest here you will have system error. Very carefully use ptedit32 to exchange the table entries so they are in order or your BIOS may not boot anything. Best