SCO OpenServer Handbook
Chapter 7, Using other operating systems with an SCO system

Using an SCO system and DOS with two hard disks

Using an SCO system and DOS with two hard disks

Your computer always boots the operating system in the active partition on the first hard disk. SCO systems must boot from the first hard disk. There are several ways to configure your system if you have two hard disks and want to boot DOS. Two ways are discussed here.

One configuration consists of designating the entire first disk as a UNIX partition. You then use a DOS boot floppy disk to start DOS and specify:

   A> D:
to switch to the DOS area on the second hard disk, where D: is the designation for the second hard disk. This strategy works for some versions of DOS. Early versions recognize only the first hard disk on the system.


NOTE: If you devote a hard disk for use with DOS, the disk must already be configured under DOS.

Another method is to maintain a small DOS partition on the first hard disk. The DOS partition is designated the active partition. In this configuration, the computer always boots DOS. This requires changing the active partition to boot the SCO system from the hard disk.

If you use the entire second disk for DOS, you need only create the additional special device files in /dev so that you can access the DOS partition. See ``Accessing DOS partitions on a second disk'' for more information.


NOTE: Be sure to make a backup copy of your boot floppies if you use them to boot your secondary operating system.