by Ed Muns, W0YK

Background

There continue to be endless threads with endless lengths about how to run CT and TR-Log on Windows computers. Many people have had success running these DOS programs in a DOS window on one of the Windows 9x/ME operating systems, but few have been successful with any of the NT-based operating systems, e.g., NT, 2000 or XP. Then there are those who demand that the programs be rewritten for windows. K1EA is obliging with CTWIN, but I’m sure he’d rather be contesting or doing something other than rewriting CT … and supporting two versions now. Finally, there are contesters who use separate computers for their DOS logging program and everything else they do. Laptops for traveling and DX/contest expeditions are similarly problematic.

I personally prefer to run programs designed for DOS on … DOS, not some “almost DOS” scheme. There are enough problems that crop up without encouraging them by using a different environment than the software was designed for. I also figure that Tree and Ken will be more likely to look into a bug occurring in their programs running on DOS than some alien environment.

A Solution

The solution to all this has always seemed quite simple to me, but seldom employed. That solution is to set up your computer to dual boot—to MS-DOS and your favorite flavor of Windows. Actually, “dual boot” means the ability to boot to one of two different operating systems. (Multiple boot is really what the basic capability is, but I seldom have need for more than two OS’s on one computer.) Multiple boot capability is built into the NT stream of Microsoft operating systems. Also, there are third party utilities that provide multiple boot, e.g., Partition Magic by Power Quest.

I have had MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 2000 (or XP) dual booting on all my computers (laptops and desktops) that might be used in contesting ever since the Windows 2000 Beta came out years ago. I also typically dual boot all my other computers with Windows 2000 in addition to whatever the manufacturer set it up with. That way, I can go into the environment that the manufacturer designed it for (is there a theme developing here?) for troubleshooting and yet have my other Windows 2000 environment that I personally set up and configure to do just what I want and no more. I put each OS on its own physical disk drive and back-up data from each to the other to provide redundancy and data protection.

How to do this?  (Easy.)  Is an IT professional required?  (No, at least I’m certainly not.)  There are two general directions.  One is to use the multiple boot facility built into Windows 2000 and XP.  The other is to use a separate utility such as Partition Magic.  I like the former approach—it is 100% Microsoft and doesn’t involve another piece of software messing with the underlying OS functions.  However, that is purely personal, because I know many people using Partition Magic and have never heard of a problem with it.

Microsoft Multiple Boot

If you are willing to start with a fresh disk, it is very straightforward.  (I’ll use MS-DOS 6.22 as the example because it was the last stand-alone DOS version.)  First, use the MS-DOS utility FDISK to create a FAT16 partition on part of your hard disk drive.  It doesn’t have to be very large (a few megabytes is sufficient), but many computers have multi-GB drives so a larger partition is feasible.  The largest you can make a FAT16 partition is 2GB and that is what I’ve done on my computers in the past 3 years because they all have at least 12GB of disk.  That makes me feel like I have nearly infinite storage for all the contests I’ll ever do, plus archives of all the versions of CT and TR-Log, simulators, other DOS ham software, etc. 

Then, install MS-DOS 6.22 on this partition, which will be your C: drive.  Next, install Windows 2000 (or, XP) and the initial part of the setup program gives you the option to create a second partition in the remaining disk space that wasn’t used by the first partition (FAT16) that now has MS-DOS installed on it.  The setup program clearly describes your choices, which I won’t repeat here.  You could create more than just a second partition and all that, but my example of just MS-DOS 6.22 in one partition and Windows 2000 in a second partition is all most of us need.

When Windows is installed, after one or more computer restarts in the process, you will be presented with a menu during boot time, which allow you to choose MS-DOS or Windows to boot up.  Windows will be the default, meaning that it will boot up if you fail to choose MS-DOS within the allotted time (I think the default is 30 seconds).  You can change which OS is the default, what the menu labels are (i.e., MS-DOS 6.22) and how long the menu waits for you to choose before loading the default.  These choices can be made within Windows 2000 :

1. Right-click My Computer, then Properties, to get the System Properties window.
2. Select the Advanced tab, then Startup and Recovery.
3. At the top of the window is the System Startup box where you can choose:
1. The default OS that will load if you make no choice on boot.
2. The time the boot menu stays up before the default is executed.
3. The menu labels for each of your OS’s.

Note that you must install the operating systems in the order described.  This is because Windows 2000 saves the DOS boot sector and installs its own.  The boot menu is being done within the Windows 2000 boot process and if MS-DOS is chosen by the user, then the MS-DOS boot sector is reloaded and DOS is very happy, none the wiser about all the monkeying around by Windows 2000.  If you were to install Windows first, then DOS, this dual boot menu process would be inactivated as DOS writes its own boot sector on the active partition, the C: drive, that had Windows 2000 on it.  Using the Windows 2000 Emergency Repair Diskette can repair this issue, but why create it in the first place.

Windows 2000 has the ability to create additional partitions with its Disk Management utility (Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Disk Management). You could create your FAT16 partition for MS-DOS after installing only Windows 2000 (or on a computer with Windows 2000 already installed), but then you’d have to run the Emergency Repair Diskette.  All of this is beyond the scope of this article.

Note also that your Windows 2000 disk drive will be drive letter D.  Windows 2000 disk management utility can reassign drive letters, but I’ve not done that and there are potential problems, so I live with these drive letter assignments.  This is also beyond the scope of this article.

Partition Magic

This approach is especially suited for those people who already have Windows 2000 (or XP or NT or any of the 9x/ME operating systems) already installed and don’t want to erase their data and programs to reformat the two partitions described above.  Spend another $60 for Partition Magic and follow the directions to create your FAT16 partition, and then install MS-DOS 6.22.  Instead of Windows 2000 providing the boot menu for you to choose operating systems, Partition Magic does this function. An additional benefit is the set of other partition managing functions beyond what Windows 2000 provides.

Conclusion

The dual boot approach is optimum for co-existence (on the same physical computer) of real-time DOS programs like contest logging programs (with DVPs, DVKs, packet, TNC, radio control, rotor control, keying, etc.) with the common Windows environment 95% of us are forced to live with.  All the utilities and programs were designed to do these tasks and the DOS programs have the exact environment they were designed to work within.  Furthermore, Windows can access all the files on the DOS partition and use its own text editors to edit the DOS files.  Windows can manage the DOS file system more efficiently than from within DOS.  And, CT or TR-Log can be run from a “DOS window” within Windows 2000 if you don’t need any of the real-time functions like CW, rig control, etc.  This is handy for post-contest log review or processing.