running linux on 2nd hdd

[wurmy]

i'm going to be running redhat 6.2 on a secondary hdd in my system. i'm in the process of getting it installed now and i was wondering what the easiest way to use this setup would be. for right now i just want to kind of get the hang of linux, and in the near future i'd like to learn how to use it as a server. am i going to have to disconnect my primary hdd to boot to my linux drive every time, or is there a way to dual-boot with two drives??

wurm

[Daedra]

yes you can use the lilo boot loader. when the computer boots up it will give you the option of booting the OS of your choice

[wurmy]

ok, so should i have the hdds set up as normal, with my primary (windows) drive as master, and the linux drive as slave? and if so how do i get my system to give me the option of which drive/OS to boot to?

wurm

[plasmid]

I am running mandrake on my second hard drive and windows on my master (though I rarely use it now that I am comfortable with linux). When you install linux, just place it on the drive that you would like it on (mandrake expert installation makes this easy...I assume redhats setup is also pretty clear). When it comes time to install lilo (the linux boot loader), it will need to be placed on the master boot record (MBR) of you master hard drive. This will overwrite the windows boot loader, but lilo will boot windows, so don't fear. Just make sure that when lilo is set up that one of the boot options is you windows system. Should you decide that you don't like linux, you can always get your windows boot system back by running "fdisk /mbr" from the run command of the start menu. Doing this will overwrite lilo with the windows boot loader, and the only way to boot linux will be with a boot disk.

Last thing, before you install linux, make sure you have a boot disk for windows just in case something goes wrong with lilo. Also, when you install linux, make sure you create a boot disk in case you ever overwrite your MBR on your master disk.

Good luck

-plasmid

[wurmy]

thanks, that was mucho helpful.

wurm

[plasmid]

glad to help

-plasmid