Very quick two cents: I am not sure about grub2win, but plain grub will boot freedos disk images perfectly fine. On my computer, I simply created a fat32 partition, booted a disk image from grub, and now I run programs off the fat32 partition. Yes, I have to edit the boot image whenever I want to change my autoexec/config.sys, but I don't have to worry about the mbr nor messing up my boot partition.
On Sat, Dec 20, 2025 at 9:20 AM Michał Dec via Freedos-user < [email protected]> wrote: > It's not over 4TB, it's for over 2TiB. MBR tables have a 32 bit bitfield > for addressing sectors - so 0x100000000 (since sector 0 is also > accounted for) sectors multiplied by 512 bytes per sector, divided by > 1024^4 bytes per TiB, gives us exactly 2 TiB. GPT introduces 64 bit > bitfields for sector numbers. Individual devices may also have different > sector sizes than 512 bytes. There's plenty of HDDs popping up since > early 2010s that have 4096 bytes per sector, but they support being > addressed as 512 byte logical sectors for the convenience of whatever is > trying to access the disk. > > W dniu 20.12.2025 o 16:09, Roger via Freedos-user pisze: > > Clarification, if you're unaware, partition layouts can either be the > > old MBR (legacy/old DOS) partition layout or GPT newer partition > > layout, with support for >4TB and required for EFI boot methods. MBR > > can only boot old legacy/DOS, no EFI. GPT can handle both, requiring > > a workaround for booting MBR related operating systems, however > > requires BIOS CSM (legacy BIOS support) enabled when booting MBR > > related operating systems. > > > > On Sat, Dec 20, 2025 at 9:42 AM Roger <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Windows 11 (unlike Windows 10) by default installs to EFI partition. > >> > >> I found out the hard way, only use bcdboot.exe for reinstalling the > >> Microsoft Windows 11 EFI partition and Microsoft Windows 11 relevant > >> contents into the EFI partition. If I'm not mistaken, bcdboot will > >> automatically call the relevant EFI related parts of "bootrec /scanos" > >> (bootrec.exe), so not needed to run scanos functions. Trying to use > >> MBR bootrec.exe executable will cause Windows 11 to not boot, and/or > >> display the ugly blue repair screen. (The brief process for deleting > >> and creating the Windows 11 EFI, remove/create the initial FAT32 > >> partition, boot into the Windows 11 repair, use diskpart for > >> creating/finding the EFI FAT32 partition and assigning a letter if > >> needed, exiting from diskpart and running bcdboot incantation for > >> reinstalling the Windows 11 EFI partition contents. If any other > >> Windows operating system has been installed via the EFI method (not > >> MBR method), this process should automatically create a boot menu for > >> those other Windows EFI bootable operating systems. > >> > >> Windows 10 and older operating systems, will call for using > >> bootrec.exe, working with and install MBR related functions, again, > >> not compatible with Windows 11. You'll encounter a lot of > >> instructions on the Internet directing for utilizing bootrec.exe in > >> tandem with bcdboot.exe. > >> > >> Another hiccup I ran into, likely Windows 10 can be installed via > >> both, MBR and EFI; or Windows 11 just installs two separate EFI > >> partitions within one drive, likely for MBR/EFI compatibility. Weird. > >> Microsoft only wants and needs you using their latest and greatest > >> operating system! > >> > >> Roger > >> > >> On Fri, Dec 19, 2025 at 7:43 PM Tomas By via Freedos-user > >> <[email protected]> wrote: > >>> On Sat, 20 Dec 2025 01:31:44 +0100, Karen Lewellen wrote: > >>>> exactly which Linux? > >>> > >>> Well, I only have recent experience with Ubuntu, but it has worked the > >>> same in all others I have tried, for quite a while now. > >>> > >>> /Tomas > >>> > >>> > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> Freedos-user mailing list > >>> [email protected] > >>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Freedos-user mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user >
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