I have been promised a Thinkpad 755c. Nothing do I know about it, other than 755c's have eiter a 486DX2 (50mhz) or 486DX4-75mhz processor (she has not given me model number, I cannot decode it per usual). Anyway, want to install 6 gig disk, want to run a dual boot with IBM PC DOS and Windows NT 4.0 Workstation. Speed no issue! The 755c Thinkpad is a two-spindle machine, ie, a hard disk and a floppy, no CD. Here is my question: Is there a way to split the NT 4.0 CD-rom into floppies and use that? I'm willing to get a 50 diskette box and make some. Or, I could either backup the CD-rom to a parallel port tape drive, and use the same drive to "restore" it on the Thinkpad, running DOS. Or perhaps use Lap Link (if I can find the bloody cable!) BUT, can I run NT Setup off DOS? I could use the three boot floppies, but won't this only recognize the CD that doesn't exist? As well, I want to split the drive into these partitions: 1 to 2gb FAT 16 - PC-DOS and Win 3.1 4 to 5gb NTFS - Windows NT 4 and Office 97 Can NT Setup format and partition the NTFS partition if I left it just as unpartitioned space back when I was using FDISK to install PC DOS?

Last bit 'first'... " Can NT Setup format and partition the NTFS partition if I left it just as unpartitioned space back when I was using FDISK to install PC DOS? " NT cannot create/format a partition in excess of 4Gig during setup (be it fat16 or ntfs)... You are indicating a 6Gig drive - with 1Gig-2Gig set aside for dos/3x, and 4Gig-5Gig for NT... If you make dos/3x 2Gig then you're just within the limits for NT as indicated immediately above. If you make dos/3x 1Gig or so then you have the issue of NT and the 4Gig limit to address. This could be accomodated by making NT upto 4Gig, and use the balnace of the drive as fat16 for shared data. The drive could resemble: Primary c: = 1Gig = fat16 = dos/3x; Extended (logical-drives): d: = 1Gig = fat16 = data; e: = 4Gig max = fat16/ntfs = NT/apps etc. OR: Primary c: = 2Gig = fat16 = dos/3x; Extended (logical-drive): d: = 4Gig max = fat16/ntfs = NT/apps etc. OR: Primary c: = 2Gig = fat16 = dos/3x; Extended (logical-drives): d: = 1Gig = fat16 = shared data; could be upto 2Gig if e: is smaller accordingly; e: = upto 3Gig max = fat16/ntfs = NT/apps etc. Once you have the dos/3x Primary established you could then use NT setup to the configure the 4Gig free space and use it all for NT, or use some for shared data, some for NT system files (the OS itself). Similarly a dos/'9x boot disk will allow you to configure the drive completely prior installing either OS. Remember that dos cannot see/access ntfs; so any shared data has to be either within the (fat16) dos/3x partition, or you have a shared fat16 (2Gig limit) logical-drive within the Extended partition area - and it should ideally be the first logical-drive (so as to preserve drive letter continuity across both OS). As regards installing NT from floppies... I think that's out of reach... However if you can find some way to copy the i386 to the dos partition, you could then install NT from there. Perhaps a back-pack (external) CDROM would work - not having used one I'm speculating on whether or not they work in dos...? Possibly the "duplicate the CD to a tape-device and then transfer to the laptop drive route" might work... (It's a novel approach.) Another route would be to remove the hard-drive from the laptop, install it in conventional PC (via a suitable adapter); then preconfigure the drive there, and install dos. Then you can copy the i386 to the dos primary partition. Afterwhich restore the drive to the laptop and then run NT setup from there... A long shot re' splitting the i386 into floppies - and boy it would take a while and some number of floppies... You could use a file-splitter util to this end. The various zip utils might allow it too - but I have found Winzip less than reliable on some occasions - especially when dealing with 'larger' files... However... are you sure this laptop will support NT...? Perhaps first visit the IBM site and see what it says there re' supported OSs for that model laptop. Presuming it is OK for NT, then secure all required drivers before running NT setup... Providing the laptop is "au fait" (OK) for NT I'd be inclined to the drive + adapter in another PC approach, in order to get the i386 across. Again, once the i386 in on the c: drive, you can run NT setup from there (you won't need the 3 floppies) and point it to the appropriate area of the drive. If the drive is preconfigured fine; if not then NT setup can do it for you.

Thanks for the informative reply. IBM says the 755c will run NT, provided there is enough ram installed (basic is 4 megs max is like 32 or something) I am hoping the lady with it has forgotten that it's a 755CD - first laptop to have a built-in CD-rom drive, but I doubt it. I think the tape deal should be OK (but unbearably slow) (the bones of the NT CD can be made into a 250mb tape right? maybe RAR'ed). If I was smart, I would buy a pinadapter, which would make my entire laptop (mainly Thinkpad) life easier (I have to also find a way to fit Windows 2000 on a CD AND Floppy-less (well, external flop) Thinkpad 560Z) What do I run from DOS prompt? Would I do something like this: C:\NTSETUP\I386>winnt.exe or rather, what is the executable to use to begin a DOS NT install? Will NT Setup fck up my PC DOS install or will it present me with Boot Menu screen where I can chose between PC DOS / Win 3.1 and Win NT 4.0 (would be great)? I'm very pleased...

The command to start the install would be "winnt /b" which is the floppyless install. The windows 3.1 install will mess up your pcdos install not Nt. This is due to dos and 3.1 [which is dos based] both having boot files in common like msdos.sys and command.com. You can setup the multiboot between 3.1 and NT using the boot.ini once NT is installed. How I used to go to dos was I used Choice.exe in the config/autoexec.bat and that allowed me to choose command prompt only which was dos. Otherwise you have to use a 3rd party boot manager. Considering your other hurtles I wouldn't recommend that path. My choice, given your options, would be to fdisk and setup 3 partitons. Small primary active for house the boot files [50-125meg] and then a partition for windows and one for NT. I would use LapLink to copy the i386 folder and its contents off the NT cdrom to the laptop drive. Then you can run install.

Umm... are you talking NT 3.1 or Windows 3.1? Windows 3.1 (what I am using) is merely a shell on top of DOS. Best way to think of is like a program. Win 3.1 won't touch any boot files. PC DOS doesn't have an msdos.sys (it's called ibmdos.com) or an IO.SYS (ibmbio.com). thanks for reply.

In my post dos/3.1 refers to (M$)dos/windows3.1; nt is presumed to be nt4. You (first) install dos/windows3.1 to the fat16 Primary, then you install nt to its own partition/space. nt it will merely add/install its boot/start-up files to the that Primary partition and install its system files (the OS itself) to the Extended partition space. It will also create the bootsect.dos - which enables dos to boot via the nt boot-loader - and write the boot.ini to include dos as a bootable option, thus completing the dual-boot. When using M$dos the above routine leaves M$dos intact and bootable (via the nt boot-loader). What happens when one starts with PC-dos (and adds in NT) I'm not sure; I havent' 'ever' used PC dos in a dual/multi-boot environment; at a guess I'd expect it to be OK, as most references to dos generally refer to/cover both M$/PCdos. But perhaps others with PCdos experience can advise further in that regard? As far as I know the differences between PCdos and M$dos are minimal..., so again I can't see as there would be any problems in that regard for you. When you boot to dos you would then presumably manually boot to windows3.1 (via the win command - or a batch file/menu routine)? Certainly I can see no need of an add-in util to achieve the dual-boot (nt/dso+win3x). If you wanted dos/win3.1 in less than 2Gig, and thus to use a larger than 4Gig partition for nt, then post back. There are ways to create a partition for nt in excess of the 4Gig limit (the limit imposed if the partition is created during setup). Personally I'd stay with the max 4Gig (or even less) for the nt boot-partition (where the OS itself is installed).