Installing Windows 95 on the same computer as XP

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Posted by aloep on Jul-18-2003 19:53:

Installing Windows 95 on the same computer as XP

I'm currently running Windows XP, but I would like to install Windows 9x just for playing a couple of older games which Windows XP doesn't like. I have a copy of Windows 95 right here which came with a computer I bought many years ago.

So my question is, if I boot the computer up from a floppy and create a DOS FAT16 partition and then run the Windows 95 setup from CD ROM, will that work? I know from previous experience that Windows NT 3.51 prompts you with a menu enabling you to select which operating system you want to run if you have installed more than one, but does XP do the same? Or will I need to install some software designed to let you run "multiple OS's"?

Any help is appreciated.

Posted by jon on Jul-18-2003 22:02:

i belive if 95 was installed previousley and you went to install xp, xp would relise and give you a boot menu. imm not to sure how you would go about seting it up, as my only experience in dual booting is win xp and linux, and linux handels it just fine

Posted by aloep on Jul-18-2003 22:10:

quote:
Originally posted by jonsimmonds
i belive if 95 was installed previousley and you went to install xp, xp would relise and give you a boot menu. imm not to sure how you would go about seting it up, as my only experience in dual booting is win xp and linux, and linux handels it just fine

When I last had Windows 95, it was running on my old HD. At the end of April, that HD died completely (only several weeks after it had crashed). I had a new HD and Windows XP installed by an expert so it doesn't load the boot menu.

I have Windows 95, NT 3.51 and 3.11 emulated in Connectix Virtual PC but that completely lacks support for accelerated 3D graphics.

Posted by Tranex02 on Jul-19-2003 00:34:

if u create a new partition (Fat16 if that's what u want), and install windows on it then u can run XP and 95.
I've never done this before, but i remember when reading the Help file in Partition Magic, they talked about doing this kind of setup..
Partition Magic should do it for you....
(just one tip about this program, do not use the resize partition option.... it screwed things up a bit for me)...

hope this helps in a way!

Posted by aloep on Jul-19-2003 13:13:

I just resized my main partition with Partition Magic in order to create a new FAT16 one for Windows 95, but some odd stuff has happened since. The first time Windows started afterwards, all recently modified files appeared "corrupted". However, I rebooted and it automatically ran Checkdisk (or whatever it's called) and fixed that. But the sound in GTA Vice City that it reads from the HD has stopped working, but the sounds it reads from the CD ROM are playing.

I dunno, something is just giving me a bad feeling about doing this.

Edit:
Does anyone know of any partition programs that will work on Windows NT 3.51? Because I can test creating a new partition and installing Windows 95 on my Windows NT 3.51 virtual machine on Connectix Virtual PC and see what happens when I try to install Win 95 after installing it. NT 3.51 and XP are both based on the same code (am I right?), so I'm guessing I will get the same results with it and XP.

NT 3.51 will run many of the same programs as NT 4.0, although not the more modern programs.

Posted by aloep on Jul-20-2003 14:45:

Okay, I just did a test by installing Windows 95 after Windows NT 3.51 in my virtual machine, and it did NOT work. It completely overwrote the NT 3.51 startup files and did not prompt me with a boot menu.

Posted by DJPG on Jul-22-2003 08:19:

You can't do it in reverse order. If you want Windows '95 and XP running at the same time, '95 has to be installed FIRST.

Then install XP second and you'll get dual boot options. That's just the way it works, I don't write the rules

Posted by flystyler on Jul-22-2003 23:13:

quote:
Originally posted by DJPG
You can't do it in reverse order. If you want Windows '95 and XP running at the same time, '95 has to be installed FIRST.

Then install XP second and you'll get dual boot options. That's just the way it works, I don't write the rules

Yep, i agree with this guy. Although have a look online, u might be able to get some software to help u dual boot with 95