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# Dual-Booting Windows NT and SCO UNIX

Article ID: 105309

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006

APPLIES TO

- Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1
- Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.1
- Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1

This article was previously published under Q105309

## SUMMARY

The Windows NT bootloader does not allow you to start SCO UNIX as an alternative operating system; however, Windows NT and SCO UNIX can coexist on the same hard drive and you can set up a dual-boot situation by using the capabilities of SCO UNIX to start to an MS-DOS drive.

## MORE INFORMATION

Because SCO UNIX requires a separate partition that is not accessible from Windows NT, it is not possible to use the Windows NT bootloader to start SCO UNIX. However, if you have both Windows NT installed on a primary FAT partition and SCO UNIX installed on a primary UNIX partition on the startup hard drive, you can configure your computer for dual-boot by setting the UNIX partition as active using MS-DOS FDISK or Windows NT Disk Administrator.
Once you do this, starting up the computer will start SCO UNIX initially, but when you reach the following prompt

       Boot
       :

you have the option of pressing ENTER to continue starting SCO UNIX or typing DOS and pressing ENTER to start from the MS-DOS/Windows NT partition. Note that the UNIX start mechanism will ONLY start a FAT partition. If you have converted your startup drive to NTFS, this procedure will fail and the only way to "dual boot" at this point will be to use the FDISK utility from UNIX and Disk Administrator from Windows NT to switch active partitions between the two primary partitions.
The SCO product discussed here is manufactured by The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc., a vendor independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding this product's performance or reliability.

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