3.11 to 95A?

[herringtonjc]

I have a computer running windows 3.11 and I installed windows 95A with it, in a dual boot situation. When I try to load win95 OS it tells me that I have to delete some memory resident programs such as config.sys and autoexec.bat. Obviously I don't want to delete these! Does anyone know how to fix this problem? I was thinking loading the specific programs into High Memory...?

 

[Taff]

Hi,

Long time since I ran that upgrade

If I recall it correctly, it's related to the different method of handling memory that Win95 uses.

All you need to do (I think) is edit the autoexec.bat and/or config.sys to reflect the changes need by Win95 - just 'rem' out the lines individually and test.

Good luck,

Taff.

 

[herringtonjc]

I will try that, currently I'm working on hardware compatitbility. I'm not entirely sure if it's a memory problem, a motherboard problem, or a processor problem...

Does anyone know where I can find a hardware compatitbility list for Windows 95A?

 

[Taff]

Just the natural development of Windows memory handling with massive amounts of RAM that was becoming the norm then ^^

You can use a floppy to boot 3.11, I think, using the original autoexec.bat and config.sys, leaving the modified Win95 ones on the hdd.

Wasn't there a basic HCL installed in the Windows directory as part of the install? Maybe it's on the CD ... ?

 

[gbhall]

I just fired up Win98 in MS virtual PC and both autoexec.bat and config.sys are completely null (empty) files. Win95A was not so forgiving if I remember, you would have had to use memmaker which would juggle all the high memory very successfully.

If you cannot get it going, but have Dos 6.22, (you should do, since win3.11 runs on top of it) then run memmaker directly in Dos and note the settings. Then install Win95 and edit autoexec.bat and config.sys to match.

Actually, when you speak of dual-booting, 95% people would assume you mean two separate partitions, but maybe you just installed Win95 on top of Win3.11, in which case autoexec CANNOT be common to both. Even though autoexec probably ends with a WIN command in both cases, only the WIN.com earliest in the PATH statement will fire up.

I think it possible that install of Win95 is saying it must overwrite autoexec and config.sys, which you could allow perfectly ok to do that, but bye-bye to Win3.11 except by manual means. You could boot into Win95, exit to Dos, change the path to Win3.11 windows directory and type WIN which would then run Win3.11 instead.

 

[kimsland]

I found an excellent guide here: http://www.webtechgeek.com/windows-SuperTechGeek-Dual-Boot.htm

This is the process
Install DOS (Ver 6 preferred)
Install Windows 3.1
Install Windows 95

Windows has a built in Boot Manager but there are also other ones freely available
The boot manager works from DOS and allows you to select Windows 3.1 or Windows 95

A note of caution though, Windows 95 may not have the drivers available to even run the display (let alone sound; network other)
Therefore all this may be in vein

If you wanted my opinion I'd say keep 3.1 intact and don't touch it, for nostalgic reasons. The issue is that you may corrupt Windows 3.1 in some way, causing nothing to boot.

 

[axelmct]

lets have a look at both sets of config.sys and autoexec.bat

 

[herringtonjc]

I still haven't figured it out. I haven't gotten to check this until tonight, I'll be sure to try it Tuesday though, as I work for the next couple of days almost non-stop. It's not technically a dual-boot situation, since 95 is installed over 3.11 i've tried editing autoexec and config.sys to load it into high memory, so I'm going to try to use memmaker in 6.22 to load these programs into high memory. Thanks for the help guys! I'll let you know what happens on Tuesday!