I am setting up a dual boot workstation: Windows XP and DOS MS Article #306559 states you must install DOS first, then Windows XP. But doing this DOS is drive C: and then Windows XP is D: Is there any way to reverse this? Windows Computer management will not allow you to change the drive letter of a boot partition. But I would like Windows XP to be C: and DOS to be D: MS Article # 223188 explains how to change the drive letters, but states DO NOT USE this procedure to change a drive on a computer where the drive letter has not changed. So the article is only for those systems where the drive letter changes on its own and you need to fix it, not where you just want to change it for the sake of changing it. I know alot of you are going to ask me more questions, but all the google searches I've done show people in similar situations needing answers. - MATT

I created a dual boot MSDOS/WIN XP system using Partition Boot Magic to create two seperate partitions, one for DOS and one for Winxp, both partitions boot as "C" and are not visible to each other. An extended partition, Drive "D" is visible to both so you can swop data if you wish between the OS's. There are cheap freeware alternatives to Boot Magic. Your problem is that to my knowledge DOS can only ever boot from a partition named "C". HTH, Bob. That is the biggest fool thing we have ever done. The Atomic bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives. - Admiral William Leahy

From the best of my understanding (I stand to be corrected if I am wrong), C is always the location of the MBR and is considered the primary partition. The BIOS is set to always go looking for C when seeking the MBR in order to find the path to booting the operating system, and this goes for DOS as well as Windows. If you were able to change that, on boot you would get the infamous "cannot find operating system" or some such message. That is why Microsoft prevents you from changing the C drive to a different letter. The reason that the older system must be installed first is that in most older systems you cannot target the partition or harddrive to install to. So-if you install 2000 or XP first and then try to install DOS/Windows98 etc. it will merely overwrite the existing installation and you have a mess on your hands. However, there are a lot of techies out there that may have come up with a work-around on this, so keep on searching. Also, there is a lot about old DOS that I have forgotten; possibly (?) there is a command that will enable you to target the partition to install to, but I can't remember anymore. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime; Then industry pollutes the water and kills all the fish.

Not sure WHY its important as to where the Dos folder resides since it is so tiny compared to OS's today. If you have Partition Magic there is a utility called PQBOOT. Run it from a boot floppy diskette and it will allow you to set the 2nd primary partition [normally d:] as "c:". Then do your dos installation. You will need to use PQboot [you can copy it to the dos partition and your xp partition] to then set which drive mounts as c: Personally I wouldn't care if dos was on c:. I would have it as an entry in the boot.ini menu so I could chose either dos or XP to boot from one menu. Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Suggest they internet search and they learn a skill for a lifetime.

why bother with all sorts of hassle implicated by dual boot? use DOSBox or VirtualBox or VPC 2004 sp1 or VMware ... even on such a slow 1 ghz machine virtualization provides enough CPU power to run any dos app ever developed. Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.'

OK. I run pqboot, all it does is ask which operating system partition I wish to boot. I do that and it gets me nowhere new or even remotely makes me think I can change the drive letter. In addition, it does not even list the NTFS partition. I am using the pqboot from Partition Magic version 8? Second, WHENEVER I install the DOS 6.22 (the only version I am allowed to by company), it always wants to install to C: and DOES NOT let me change that. I want it to install to D: Sorry if my scenerio is not coming across very clearly. - MATT

In cmos/bios setup set the drive type of the drive that wants to be C: as NONE. Then your D: drive will become C: and you can install dos on it. After it's done, go back into cmos and re-enable it and install XP. Of course you'll still have the necessity of adding some kind of boot manager unless you go into cmos each time you boot up and disable the drive you don't want to use.