Subject: Re: Installed Win95, Lost dual boot? (os-bs)
To: Brad Colbert <bcolbert@ait.nrl.navy.mil>
From: Feico Dillema <dillema@acm.org>
List: netbsd-help
Date: 09/19/1997 11:22:42
In message <9709181157.ZM10329@fox.ait.nrl.navy.mil> you wrote:
>
>   I "upgraded" my dos partition to Win95 and it overwrote my os-bs boot
>   options.

I had the same experience with an Intel-box of a friend of mine. As
that was the first Intel install of NetBSD for me, it scared the
s**t out of me.

>   I tried install os-bs again and it died with a divide by zero error?
Yes, it appears os-bs is older than Win-95 and cannot cope with the
mayhem Win'95 puts in your bootblock.

>   How do I fix this problem?
It's actually relatively simple. Win'95 does affect your bootblock
by overwriting it completely, but (as usual ;) doesn't add any
real functionalit AFAIK. I think it writes the bitmap of its startup-
screen in it (well, on the first cylinder that is), for faster
loading. If the bitmap is not there, it just loads it from
some normal directory. You can therefore solve the problem by
re-installing a regular DOS-bootblock on your disk, and then
re-run os-bs. Both Win'95 and NetBSD will work happily together
then. Notice that *after* you followed this procedure and 
Win'95 and NetBSD share the disk, Win'95 will mention (complain?)
that there's another OS on the disk it considers his territory.
So it is capable of detecting this from the bootblock, during
Win'95 install time however it just happens to `forget' to check...

I re-installed the DOS-bootblock using pfdisk (if memory serves
me right). Being a bit paranoid, I'd saved a copy on a floppydisk
before starting Win'95 install. If you don't have such a copy,
I guess it should be possible to create one anew or copy it 
from somebody else's disk. (I'm not enough of a DOS guru to be
sure about these things...).

BTW: When you have things running, keep os-bs, pfdisk and a 
copy of your bootblock on a floppy-disk (on two if you're
paranoid) as my experience is that Win'95 users generally need
to re-install Win'95 in order to solve the most frequently
appearing problems. The past year I've visited this friend
of mine a couple of times with the disk to fix the bootblock,
due to this.    

Goodluck with Win'95 and Have Fun with NetBSD,

Feico.