How do I boot DOS even though I have XP?

[Sam-U-Rai]

Sup guys. I was wondering how do I make a bootable DOS cd yet use the info on my XP harddrive?

I want to use this bootable DOS cd to play some DOS games that I stored on my 80 gig HDD but the HDD uses Windows XP. Can I still access the data on this drive?

Wasn't sure if you could go cross platform like that.

Oh, and can anyone recommend me a good Bootable DOS CD (iso version preferably)?

[glc]

Try running the games directly from the drive. You can play with compatibility modes and running it in a window or full screen to see what happens.

[Sam-U-Rai]

Hmmm ok, I'll try that. Should I use Dosbox then?

Though, I think you have to know how to use the command line for it... Any idea on how to do that?

[glc]

You may not even need Dosbox.

[Sam-U-Rai]

You may not even need Dosbox.

Well I looked into it, most of my games aren't DOS box compatiable.

And they won't run in XP.

I figured out I had a DOS startup thing on my Ultimate Boot CD, is there someway I could partion my old drive to use like 5 gigs of DOS so I could run my stuff?

[glc]

Yes, but you would have to wipe the main drive and start over. You install DOS *first*, on a partition no bigger than 2.1 gigs on the main drive, THEN install XP in another partition. ANY drive/partition that needs to be visible to DOS must be formatted FAT16, and be no bigger than 2.1 gigs.

[Sam-U-Rai]

Yes, but you would have to wipe the main drive and start over. You install DOS *first*, on a partition no bigger than 2.1 gigs on the main drive, THEN install XP in another partition. ANY drive/partition that needs to be visible to DOS must be formatted FAT16, and be no bigger than 2.1 gigs.

Ok. So say I clone my old harddrive with the one I got today, and I wipe it clean. Should I install DOS through the UltimateBootDisc and THEN store files on it so I can back it up for my new harddrive.

I wanna back it up just in case cause all my music and videos are on the old hard drive already so might as well keep it there when I clone it.

I know this might come off as confusing but after I clone the old hard drive and wipe it clean, can I take just the music and videos from the newly cloned hard drive and put it on the old one without going through the BIOS menu?