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NT Workstation DualBoot with 95

NT Workstation DualBoot with 95

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Question:
I have Windows 95 OSR 2 installed (FAT32). Should I be able to install NT Workstation/Server as a dual boot option? Whenever I run setup.exe I get a message like…

"Unable to install Boot Loader""Ensure your disk is formatted and not damaged"

Answer:
Sorry to break the news, but NT 4.0 and before will not read local FAT32 partitions. NT 5.0 is supposed to, but that won’t be out for a while. You have a couple of choices:

(1) Reformat the boot disk for regular FAT, then copy the files back to the disk from a current backup.

(2) Install a new disk as the master disk (if IDE) or SCSI 0 (if using SCSI) and format that for FAT. Of course, you will either have to copy all the files from your current C: drive (now D:) drive), or do a lot of search-and-replace in the registry to change all the occurances of C: to D:. Plus, all your shortcuts, etc., will have to be changed sooner or later.

But the short answer is, the only current common denominator between Win95/98 and NT is standard FAT.

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