Run DOS On Your Windows NT/2000/XP Computer (While Keeping NT Intact)

Do you want to run a DOS game on your computer, but it runs horribly because you're using Windows NT, and it's integrated 16-bit DOS subsystem (NTVDM: NT Virtual DOS Machine)?
Wolfenstein 3D has no music, Doom runs incredibly slow, and almost any 3D DOS game runs horribly on NT.

You probably still want to run that game, but you don't want to switch to Windows 3.x or 9x. Lucky for you, we have three solutions!

By the way, Method 2 is pretty long and you'd need another computer to read the instructions while you do everything on. You can download it by itself and print it out. You probably need to print it double-sided.

Before you try any of these methods, make sure the file-system of the drive you plan to put your DOS software on is not NTFS. If it is, Method 3 is your only option, but you should use FAT16 or FAT32.

Method 1: Obtain A Boot Floppy

Does someone you know have a computer running Microsoft Windows 1.x, 2.x, 3.x, or 9x? If so, ask if you can use it for a moment. If the computer owner says yes, get a floppy disk and boot the computer into DOS mode or open the MS-DOS Prompt inside of Windows. Then, insert your floppy disk and type "sys a:" at the MS-DOS prompt. If the floppy disk already has data on it, type "format a: /s".

A MS-DOS boot floppy will be made. Go back to your Windows NT computer, and insert the MS-DOS boot floppy you just made. If you left your system on, restart it. If you did not, power your computer on. Your computer will boot to MS-DOS.

Method 2: Dual-Boot MS-DOS And Windows NT (Recommended)

Notice: If you have less than 8 gigabytes of hard drive space, this method is not recommended.

Notice 2: If you don't have your Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP install media anymore, this method won't work for you unless you know someone that has install media for your NT version.

Notice 3: You should make a backup of your hard drive to another hard drive before you make all of these changes just in case something goes wrong. There is a chance that everything will be messed up after this and you will need to restore your previous hard drive state.

Step 1: Create A Partition For DOS

First, create a seperate partition for MS-DOS. The size of this partition should be 1 to 3 GB. Format this partition using    FAT, FAT16, or if you're using a stand-alone version of MS-DOS 7.1/8.0, you should format it to FAT32.

Step 2: Install DOS To Your New Partition

Prepare your DOS install media (probably a floppy disk, but if you're using a third-party stand-alone MS-DOS 7.1/8.0, it could be a CD if you made the CD bootable). Insert your media, then install DOS to this partition.

Step 3 (2000/XP Only): Fix Your Boot Loader

Boot to your Windows NT install media. You should see this screen now:

Strike the R key. This will repair your computer, but make sure you follow the steps below depending on what NT version you're using.

If using Windows NT 3.x or 4.0:

Boot from a DOS (preferably a 9x MS-DOS 7.1/8.0) floppy, then type:

fdisk /mbr

That rewrites a clean MBR, but it will remove NT’s bootloader. Then,

Boot from NT 4.0 Setup, use Repair, and NT's bootloader is restored and will include your Boot.ini options again.

To be clear, this is what you need to do during repair:

Perform the repair manually, then check the following at the next screen:

- Inspect startup environment
- Verify boot files
- Verify Windows NT boot loader

If using Windows 2000 or XP: Type FIXBOOT and then FIXMBR.

Step 4: Edit Boot.ini

Get an NTFS4DOS boot floppy here. Boot to the floppy when you extract that image to it, then go to the drive you installed DOS on, which should be C: in this prompt. Go to the directory you installed on (if you installed to C:\DOS\, type “cd C:\DOS”) and type “edit”. Open the file “BOOT.INI” on the root of the drive letter that Windows NT is installed on (should be D: here). Down below are the changes you should make to your BOOT.INI file: If there is a BOOT.INI file on your DOS drive, make these changes to it, also.

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[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows NT 4.0"
C:\="MS-DOS 6.22"

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Make sure that "partition(2)" is what NT is installed on and that C:\ points to DOS.

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Hopefully, this guide worked for you. If it did, make sure to share it with others!

Method 3: Use Avira NTFS4-DOS

Avira NTFS-DOS is a version of DOS that has NTFS support. If you don't want to tamper with anything and want to keep everything including DOS programs on your NTFS drive, boot to this floppy. This is a FreeDOS Boot floppy that comes packaged with a program named NTFS4DOS.EXE that runs every time you boot from this floppy.

Download the boot image here, then write it to a floppy disk using RawWrite. RawWrite is great with writing to floppies, because from experience, when using 7-Zip to extract boot images, they don't boot, but with RawWrite they do.

Boot to your floppy and run whatever software it is that NT couldn't run right.

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