May have been answered before; but not in language i can understand... I have an old P2 300 notebook leftover from work. I's like to do a nice fresh xp install, and have a dual boot option of Xp and Dos. Reason is: this notebook is used for software for my cars. Auterra Desktop Dyno is nice and modern and works great under xp, but Haltech is an old dos-based program and won't run under xp at all (i've tried). The machine has a 8gb drive; ideally i'd like to let xp have all but 100mb or so, and let dos have the 100mb for the Haltech and it's (itty-bitty) files. other option is to just install win 98 for everything, but that seems rather stone-age. suggestions for how to do this cleanly? Thanks much!

The older OS, DOS, has to be installed before XP is installed. HOW TO: Create a Multiple-Boot System in Windows XP

Windows Millenium Edition ??

You could consider using an emulator like QEMU. It is a program that allows dos (or most any OS) to run within a window just like any other app. While it is similar to commercial apps like MS's Virtual PC or VMwares VM machines it is a bit slower. You could also check out VMware's free player. You can make your own images and use their player on your OS of choice. This being the same sort of application that will run you old dos within a window after you boot to XP.

So I have to a) start with a clean drive b) format fat16 c) instal DOS d) install Xp correct?? is there a way to run fat 16 for Dos AND ntfs for XP on the same hard drive? newbie questions I know, sorry... Thanks for the help

Really pretty easy. Fdisk the drive using dos 6.22's fdisk into 100meg [c:] and the rest for xp. Install dos then install xp You will get a boot menu xp and previous OS. Choose previous OS for the dos app. Its a cake walk. Golly gee wilerkers everyone. Learn to Internet Search

Chuck supplied the link that instructs you on exactly how to accomplish this. Soylent Green is PEOPLE!!!