If the setup files ('setup16.exe' or 'setup32.exe') fails to run, or if they are
missing, your copy may be is corrupted. Please download a fresh copy
by clicking here
and then install. Usually when you download, you get the latest version with bug fixes and
enhancements.
To install, if you're using DOS, Win95 or Win98, you should run
'setup16.exe'. If you're using WinNT, Win2000 or WinXP, you should run 'setup32.exe'.
If you're
using WinME or other OSs like Linux, you need to start your system with a DOS boot floppy and then
run 'setup16.exe' from the floppy.
If you encounter error(s) while running the
setup program, please try to install from a DOS boot floppy.
To create a DOS boot
floppy, you need either DOS, Win95 or Win98. First insert a blank
floppy in the floppy drive. From the command prompt, type 'format
a: /s'. After formatting, copy all
the OSL2000 files into this floppy. Now, boot your system with this
floppy and run setup16.exe from there to install.
If you're still experiencing problems, please click here
to contact the helpdesk.
The uninstall disk is not required in most of the cases. But, if you're system is using
a disk manager like OnTrack, EZ-Drive, etc. and you accidentally install OSL2000 multiboot
manager, you will need the emergency disk to restore your old setup.
If you're not sure, we suggest that you make one. Because, in case
you choose to uninstall, the uninstall floppy can do it very easily!
Unlike many others, OSL2000 is a very advanced multiboot manager. It does NOT require a
partition. It resides completely in track zero of your harddisk that is reserved for
programs like OSL2000. In fact, you don't even need to worry about all these during
installation. Just click on the install button and the installer will take care of the
rest. Happy booting.
While installing OSs like Win95/98, etc., they tend to disable the boot manager during
install. So, you'll find it very convenient to have a copy of OSL2000 multiboot manager is
a bootable floppy disk while installing them.
Please use the uninstall disk to uninstall. If you do not have
one, then follow this procedure:
(1) If the setup files ('setup16.exe' or 'setup32.exe') fails to run, or if they are
missing, your copy may be is corrupted. Please download a fresh copy
by clicking here
and then uninstall. Usually when you download, you get the latest version with bug fixes and
enhancements.
(2) To uninstall, if you're using DOS, Win95 or Win98, you should run
'setup16.exe'. If you're using WinNT, Win2000 or WinXP, you should run 'setup32.exe'. If you're
using WinME or other OSs like Linux, you need to start your system with a DOS boot floppy and then
run 'setup16.exe' from the floppy.
If you encounter error(s) while running the setup program, please
try to install from a DOS boot floppy.
To create a DOS boot
floppy, you need either DOS, Win95 or Win98. First insert a blank
floppy in the floppy drive. From the command prompt, type 'format
a: /s'. After formatting, copy all
the OSL2000 files into this floppy. Now, boot your system with this
floppy and run setup16.exe from there to uninstall.
(3) If you're still experiencing problems, please click here
to contact the helpdesk.
Yes. In most of the cases, the uninstall disk is not required.
But on rare instances, where there is a conflict between OSL2000 multiboot manager
and some other third party disk managers, you won't be able to uninstall without the
uninstall disk!
Yes. You can use the following procedure to uninstall OSL2000 boot
manager manually.
1. Run 'setup16.exe' or 'setup32.exe' and uninstall. This will unhide all hidden
partitions (if any).
2. Type 'FDISK /MBR' at the DOS prompt to restore the default master boot record.
3. Finally, if necessary, run fdisk and mark your default partition as active.
You get this error if you do not have all the necessary files. To
fix this problem, please download a fresh copy by clicking here
and then install. Usually when you download, you get the latest version with bug fixes and
enhancements.
Some partitions like extended FAT partitions, swap partitions, etc cannot be booted.
Even if you try to boot them, they will not. So, to avoid confusion, OSL2000 multi boot
manager blocks all the non-bootable partitions from booting. In the options menu, you can
disable this option to unblock all partitions.
That's because, NT/2000/XP has installed it's boot loader in some other partition. Once
installed, it cannot be relocated. The only way out is, reinstall that OS using the
procedure mentioned in the multi OS installation guide.
You haven't installed LILO in the Linux partition. To do that follow these steps.
1. Make a Linux boot disk (using your friend's computer, for example).
2. Boot your Linux using that disk.
3. Then, install LILO properly. (To install LILO properly, please refer "Linux"
under "Multi OS Installation Guide").
When booting one OS, if you want
the other OSs to remain invisible, then enable this option. This option
affects only FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS partitions. Let us say you have
Win98 and WinME. With this option ON, when you boot one OS, the
other one will be invisible.
When you boot DOS/Win95/98/ME from your second harddisk,
some of the partitions must be hidden in order to boot from the
second harddisk. There is no workaround.
ODL2000 is a free boot manager. The unregistered version has nag screens. No
other differences. If you're a serious user, you'd be better off with the registered
version.
It's a complete record of OSL2000 multi boot manager's internal activity.
Every time you
run OSL2000 multi boot manager, it automatically generates this file.
When you're experiencing certain types of problems, you might have
to send us a mail and attach a compressed (zipped) copy of this file.
Once you install OSL2000 multi boot manager, the installer saves the required uninstall
info in these files. These files are used by the uninstaller during the uninstall process
to give you a perfect rollback. So, don't delete them until you're sure that you don't
need them.
Please make sure that the procedures are properly followed during installation. The
following steps will help you install multiple OSs in one of the best possible ways.
(1) Decide what all OSs you want to install in your system.
(2) Find out what all partitions you need to create for each OS.
It is important that you read the Partitioning primer under Partition management for
further information.
(3) Decide how much space you want to allocate for each OS.
Space required = Minimum space required for
each OS itself +
amount of space required for your work +
some extra space (500MB to 1GB).
(4) Create ALL the partitions. For your partitioning needs,
please click here to download a free
advanced partition manager.
(5) Now install the OSs. And, please make sure that
before installing each OS, using fdisk, mark the
partition as active, reboot the system and then install the OS. It is very important that
this procedure is repeated before installing each OS. If you fail to do it, the OS might
install the boot loader in the wrong partition, which is highly undesirable.
(6) Also, (linux users) make sure that the OSs boot loader is installed in its own
partition.
These OSs can be installed and booted from any primary partition of
your first harddisk. It is not possible to install and boot them from
extended (logical) partitions. These OSs can also be installed and booted from a primary
partition in your second harddisk too. During the course of installation,
windows tends to disable OSL2000 boot manager. If this happens, all you need to do
is just re-install OSL2000 boot manager.
Installing in first harddisk
To install one of these OSs in your first harddisk, create a primary partition and format
it with the bootable option. Using fdisk, mark the partition as active
(very important), reboot the system and then install
the OS. Remember DOS, and some editions of Win95 won't boot, if the primary partition is
not completely below the first 8GB mark. For your partitioning needs,
please click here to download a free
advanced partition manager.
Installing in second harddisk
There are three ways to install these OSs in your second harddisk.
They are as follows:
First method is, remove the second harddisk and make it the primary master. Now,
create the required partition and install the OS. Then connect the harddisks back the way
they were before. Install OSL2000 boot manager and you should now be able to boot from
your second harddisk directly. To install WinME in your second harddisk,
you cannot use the second method. If you need to install any of these OSs from a CD, again use only the first
method.
Second method is to install DOS, Win95/98 in your second (third, fourth, etc.) harddisk is
to, create a primary partition in your second (third, fourth, etc.) harddisk. Format it
with the bootable option ('Format ?: /s'). Then install OSL2000 boot
manager and boot the partition. Now, OSL2000 boot manager will directly boot into DOS in your second harddisk.
Now, copy the setup files into this partition and then run the installer. During the
course of installation, windows tends to disable OSL2000 boot manager. If this
happens, all you need to do is just re-install OSL2000 boot manager and continue with the
installation.
Third method is, install any of these OSs in your first harddisk. Use a third party
application, like Power Quest Drive Image or Norton Ghost, to take a snapshot of the
partition. Now, create a primary partition in your second harddisk and save that snapshot
to it. Install OSL2000 boot manager and you should now be able to boot from your second
harddisk directly.
Installing multiple copies
Multiple copies of any of these OSs can also be installed in your system. Both in first
and second harddisk. For example, if you have 2 harddisks, you can have 2 copies of Win98,
2 copies of WinME, a copy of Win2000 and a copy WinXP in a single system!!! To install
multiple copies, please create primary partitions in the respective harddisks and use the
above mentioned methods to install the OSs.
File System:
DOS - FAT16
Win95 - FAT16
Win98 - FAT32
WinME - FAT32
Minimum Space Requirements (for the OS alone):
Windows NT 4.0 can be installed and booted from anyprimarypartition of your first harddisk that is completely
below the first 2GB mark. It is not possible to install and boot
it from extended (logical) partitions. Even though it may be possible to install and boot
WinNT 4.0 from your second harddisk, all the related issues are not completely known and
thus this alternative is not advised. During the course of installation, windows
tends to disable OSL2000 boot manager. If this happens, all you need to do is just
re-install OSL2000 boot manager.
Installing in first harddisk
To install WinNT, first create a primary FAT16 partition and format it with the bootable
option. Using fdisk, mark the partition as active (very important), reboot the system and then install WinNT. For your partitioning needs,
please click here to download a free
advanced partition manager.
During installation, WinNT can convert it's FAT16 partition into NTFS, if requested. But
convert it only if you're not using Win2000/XP in the same system. If you're using
Win2000/XP, then during normal usage, the WinNT 4.0's NTFS partition gets converted into
Win2000's newer NTFS format. After this WinNT 4.0 will fail
to work.
Warning: A note of caution while
installing WinNT 4.0. Note that the following information might not be accurate because
the exact cause is not known. While installing WinNT 4.0, we sometimes observed that the
partition table gets corrupted. This *may* be due to some incompatibility between WinNT4.0
and the CHS disk addressing mode supported by older BIOSes. If this happens to you, first
create only one partition for WinNT and install it. Then create the rest of the partitions
and continue to install other OSs.
File System:
WinNT 4.0 - FAT16 (Use NTFS only if required. See 'Known Problems' below).
Minimum Space Requirements (for the OS alone):
Windows 2000/XP can be installed and booted from anyprimarypartition of your first harddisk. It is not possible to
install and boot them from extended (logical) partitions. Even though it may be possible
to install and boot Win2000/XP from your second harddisk, all the related issues are not
completely known and thus this alternative is not advised.During
the course of installation, windows tends to disable OSL2000 boot manager. If this
happens, all you need to do is just re-install OSL2000 boot manager.
Installing in first harddisk
To install Win2000/XP, first create a primary FAT32 partition and format it with the
bootable option. Using fdisk, mark the partition as active (very important), reboot the system and then install Win2000/XP. For your partitioning needs,
please click here to download a free
advanced partition manager.
Installing multiple copies
Multiple copies of Win2000/XP can also be installed in your system. For example, create
two primary FAT32 partitions and format them with the bootable option. Using fdisk, mark
the first partition as active, reboot the system and then install Win2000. Now again,
using fdisk, mark the second partition as active, reboot the system and then install
Win2000. Install OSL2000 boot manager. You now have two completely independent copies of
Win2000.
File System:
WinNT 2000 Professional - FAT32 (Use NTFS only if required).
WinXP Home Edition - FAT32 (Use NTFS only
if required).
Minimum Space Requirements (for the OS alone):
WinNT 2000 Professional - 600MB
WinXP Home Edition - 1.5GB
Known Problems in Win2000:
(1) When 2 copies of Win2000 is installed on the same machine, only
one copy will let you log on to your local area network.
(2) When Win2000 is installed on a system in which WinNT 4.0 is already installed, the
WinNT 4.0's NTFS partition gets converted into Win2000's newer NTFS format. After this
WinNT 4.0 will fail to boot.
Linux can be installed in any partition on any harddisk.
It can be installed even in extended (logical) partitions. Some earlier versions of Linux
won't boot, if the boot partition is not completely below the first
8GB mark. But, newer version (like RedHat 7.0 and later) does not have this
problem. Since Linux is highly configurable, the minimum space required to install differs
according to the options the user selects during installation. Typically a few hundred MBs
to a couple of GBs.
Since, Linux can be installed in extended (logical) partitions, it is a better idea to
install it in extended partitions. This will leave the primary partitions
free for other OSs like Windows.
If you have Linux, you need to install LILO in it's own partition. That is, in the beginning of the Linux partition itself. So, after
installing Linux, install LILO in it's own partition using the following procedure. Then
install OSL2000 boot manager. Remember, this should be done before
installing OSL2000 boot manager.
To install LILO in the beginning of the Linux partition, do as follows:
1. Login as root.
2. Modify the 'boot=' line in your '/etc/lilo.conf' file to point to your Linux partition
(see below).
3. Now run LILO by typing 'lilo'. Upon successful completion, LILO should say '*Added
Linux'.
4. Now restart your system and install OSL2000 boot manager.
For example, my '/etc/lilo.conf' looks like this:
---start-of-file------------
boot=/dev/hda <===== This
is the value you have to modify.
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.5-15
label=Linux
root=/dev/hdb3 <=====
Replace the value in the first line with this value.
read-only
---end-of-file--------------
Also, remove the 'prompt' & 'timeout=nn' lines. This will speed up the linux boot
process.
OSL2000 boot manager has been tested with OSs like Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD and a host
of others. But these OSs have not been extensively tested with other OS combinations. So,
if you want to use one of these, make sure you install them with the default set of
options. Also make sure their boot loaders are installed in their own respective
partitions and not in the master boot record.
To add, delete or modify partitions or to create multiple primary partitions, you'll
require a advanced partition manager. Most of the OSs like Linux and Windows have their
own built-in basic partitioning tools. For your partitioning needs,
please click here to download a free
advanced partition manager.
Before starting to install the OSs, you need to partition your harddisk for each OS.
Here is a list of OSs and the partitions they require before installation.
DOS - FAT16
Win95 - FAT16
Win98 - FAT32
WinME - FAT32
WinNT 4.0 - FAT16 (can be converted to NTFS during installation).
Win2000 - FAT16/32 (can be converted to NTFS during
installation).
WinXP - FAT32 (can be converted to NTFS
during installation).
Let us say you're installing 2 copies of Win98, 1 copy of Win2000 and 1 copy of Linux,
your partition structure should look like this:
Primary partition 1 - FAT32
( 1st copy of Win98 )
Primary partition 2 - FAT32
( 2nd copy of Win98 )
Primary partition 3 - FAT32
( Win2000 )
Extended partition - Logical partition 1 - Linux Native
Logical partition 2 - Linux Swap
Logical partition 3 - FAT32
( Common data like jpg, mp3,
mpg, etc.)
The last logical drive in any extended partition should be a FAT
partition for DOS and some version of Windows to work properly. Remember, it is a good idea to first complete all partitioning
work before installing any OS. And while creating a primary FAT partition, always remember
to format it with the bootable option (system files).
A sector is the smallest unit of data that can be read or written to the harddisk. A
sector is typically 512 bytes in size. And each harddisk (and floppy) is made up of plenty
of sectors. A 10GB harddisk will typically have a little more than 20 million sectors.
There are two ways to read and write sectors. The old CHS mode and the latest LBA mode.
OSL2000 boot manager's UntraIO(tm) transparently supports both disk access modes.
The master boot record resides in the first sector of the first harddisk. During system
startup, the master boot record first receives control and then boots the default
operating system. Once the master boot record receives control, it actually loads the
desired partition's boot record and transfers control to it. Once the control is
transferred, the master boot record no longer resides in memory. The boot record then
loads the kernel (or equivalent) into memory and transfers control to it.
The partition table is located in the first sector of each harddisk. The partition table
has all the details about all the partitions in that harddisk. To edit the partition
table, you can use tools like fdisk, Ranish, Norton DiskEdit, etc. For your partitioning needs,
please click here to download a free
advanced partition manager. Before modifying the partition table, make sure you know what you're doing. A wrong move
might destroy all the data in that harddisk.
In order to share the harddisk among operating systems, the harddisk may be divided into
partitions. The partition information is kept in the partition table. Each partition may
contain a boot record on its first sector (to load the kernel) and a file system to store
the operating system and user information. Due to a limitation in the partition table
itself, each harddisk can have a maximum of only 4 primary partitions OR 3 primary
partitions and one extended partition. Extended partitions can store many logical
partitions inside them. For your partitioning needs, please click here
to download a free advanced partition manager.
1. The system bios first attempts to load the operating system from diskette drive A. If
the drive is not ready or a read error occurs, it then attempts to read the master boot
record from the harddisk. If unsuccessful, it displays a disk error message on most
systems. If the read succeeds, the system then transfers control to the maser boot record.
2. If the boot flag in not present in the primary partition table, or if more than one
indicator (or none) is marked as bootable, the message INVALID PARTITION TABLE is
displayed and the system stops.
3. The master boot record then examines the partition table embedded within it. If one of
the entries indicate an active (bootable) partition, it's boot record is read from that
partition's first sector. If unsuccessful the message ERROR LOADING OPERATING SYSTEM
appears and the system stops. If the partition's boot record does not contain a valid
"signature", the message MISSING OPERATING SYSTEM appears, and the system stops.
5. The partition's boot record is then given control which in turn loads the rest of the
operating system.
A boot manager is a software that helps the user boot the operating system of his/her
choice. Let us say you have WinME, WinXP and Linux in your system. When you start your
system, the boot manager will present you with a list of OSs in the system and let you
choose which ever you want. Some of them can even help you with the installation process.
For example, with OSL2000 boot manager's partition hiding feature, you can very easily
install multiple copies of DOS/Win95/98/ME/2000/XP, etc
OSL2000 boot manager can boot OSs even beyond the 8GB barrier. Some BIOSes that are a
few years old, does not support the LBA disk addressing mode. They use the old CHS mode.
So, if your BIOS does not support the LBA mode and you're harddisk is more that 8GB in
size, you'll not be able to boot OSs that reside in partitions that are after the 8GB mark
In this situation, the BIOS should be upgraded.
OSL2000 boot manager lets you boot from a floppy when required. So, after installing
OSL2000 boot manager, change the booting sequence in your BIOS to "C,A". This
will speedup the boot process and also prevents booting from a floppy accidentally.
