dual booting xp and linux

[ansaul]

i want to dual boot windows xp and linux on 2 seperate hard drives. windows xp will be on a 20 gig HDD and linux will be on a 40 gig HDD. Both hard drives will be erased and i want to start fresh. what is the best way to do this? the linux distro i want to use is mandrake 8.2 . thanks so much.

--ansaul

[Dun'kalis]

Put Windows as the master on the IDE chain. Windows doesn't like it any other way. Install Windows first, then Linux. Use Linux to install a bootloader to the first drive's MBR.

[V8R]

I actually have the complete opposite setup (preexisting winxp drive on primary-slave, new mandrake drive on pri-master), but it works fine.. windows doesnt really seem to care..


Joel
(*nix n00b)

[ansaul]

hmm, so this is what i should do?

1. physically install both drives in computer.
(20gb for windows on primary master, 40 gb for linux on primary slave)

2. install windows xp to 20gb HDD (will windows xp installation ask which drive to install to?)

3. install mandrake to 40gb HDD

do i tell mandrake to install the bootloader to the windows drive?
i suspect upon first boot of installing windows then linux that the pc will only boot linux. am i correct in saying that i will need to edit lilo.conf before windows will boot? if so, what should lilo.conf look like?

also, won't windows not like it's mbr being overwritten?

thanks everyone.

[sarah31]

Originally posted by ansaul
hmm, so this is what i should do?

1. physically install both drives in computer.
(20gb for windows on primary master, 40 gb for linux on primary slave)

2. install windows xp to 20gb HDD (will windows xp installation ask which drive to install to?)

3. install mandrake to 40gb HDD

do i tell mandrake to install the bootloader to the windows drive?
i suspect upon first boot of installing windows then linux that the pc will only boot linux. am i correct in saying that i will need to edit lilo.conf before windows will boot? if so, what should lilo.conf look like?

also, won't windows not like it's mbr being overwritten?

thanks everyone.

1.yes. that is the best set up
2. right again and yes it should give you the option of which drive to install to.
3. yes

yes, you want the the Mandrake bootloader in the mbr of drive one. when i last installed mandrake it created a windows entry but i don't know if the newer version do this.

no windows won't care about the mbr being overwritten. the mbr is not a windows solely possession so to speak.

[pagejeffrey]

:confused:

Well, I've been at it for a while now and I can't get Linux and XP to work in unison.

I've recently purchased a new Dell Dimension 4500S which came pre-installed with XP. I repartitioned the 40Gig HD into 5 separate spaces.

5 GB to load XP 15 GB for Windows software and Files. Then a 750MB (linux swap), 4.5 GB / (linux native), and the rest to /Home (linux native).

XP works as expected.

Linux on the other hand won't get past the login. I've installed LILO (in graphical mode) which seems to work well (I mean, I can choose Linux or XP).

This is where it gets complicated. When I attempt to load Linux the system runs through and starts all the services. But right before it goes to KDE it craps out. I end up with a flashing screen with the login: at the bottom. I can't do anything but press Ctrl-Alt-Del at this point and reboot.

Anyone got any idea's?

Thx.

[Saptech]

Well I believe if Win XP partition is a Fat32 then it may not matter on the MBR but if XP is NTFS filesystem then the last OS you install will end up showing only that OS.

Read over this link (http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Linux+WinNT.html).

Also you may want to read this one (http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Linux+NT-Loader.html).

[CrashTestDummy9]

Ive got a dual boot WinXP Pro and RH 7.3 on 2 seperate drives and it works fine . I'll post again later but its bed time and I just wanted to reply so I wont forget where this thread is . PS...My XP is NTFS formatted . Also Grub is a better bootloader than LiLo in my opinion .

[pagejeffrey]

Thanks everyone. I'll try everything tonight... and most probably finish by Sunday sometime in December.

I was thinking of wiping everything and setting up new partitions in the folowing manner.

1GB FAT16, 750MB linux swap, 8GB linux root, 5GB XP NTFS, 15GB FAT32 exended windows partition, and the rest of the 40GB HD to Linux EXT2 for /home. (trying to keep it simple isn't as easy as it seems I guess eh.... :) )

I agree that I should probably setup XP first, but I was wondering what would happen if I installed linux first? Wouldn't I be able to setup XP as usual later and simply setup the additional OS through LILO later? Or will linux bypass the XP cd on startup?

Thanks again for your help. The links provided valuable info.

Jeffrey

[CrashTestDummy9]

I may or may not get razzed about my setup practices but here it goes anyway . If you are going to start fresh I would delete all the partitions on both drives(if you have the time and feel like it you could even do a low level format on them to wipe them clean) and set up XP on disk1 first . I personally never give Windows a partition any larger than 5gb , and actually 4gb would be better . The first partition can be NTFS formatted and carve up the remainder of disk1's unallocated space equally , for example my 40gb is 5gb for XP system , 11gb for Installs , 11gb for games and 11gb for backups and storage . If you want to share storage space with your Linux disk you'll want to format those partitions in FAT32 . Get your XP system setup and stable <~~~~(smirks) . Next move on to installing your favorite Linux Distro on disk 2 and install ,in my opinion, the Grub bootloader to the MBR of disk1 . Thats how mine is setup and it works fine . You can use the XP setup utility to partition and format your Windows disk and use your Linux Distro's disk utility to setup your Linux disk . Good luck and enjoy your new found freedom in the world of Linux .

[pagejeffrey]

Hmmm... Sounds good in theory... I'll try it out and see how it goes.

What I need to know now is... how do I get back in to XP? (bright guy forgot to make and XP boot disk)

I removed LILO and now it won't boot at all.... damn!!! :eek:

I've tried rebooting from floppy and it loads up to my fancy flashing screen.... Cool eh?

Oh well... I think I'll just stick in my XP disaster recovery disk and wipe everything like you said.

Thanks again.

Jeffrey

PS... thank GOD for my laptop otherwise I wouldn't know what was going on....

[CrashTestDummy9]

Boot with your XP install disk and go through setup . Chose "repair an existing installation" . From there I believe there is an option to "fixmbr" that should get you back into your old XP system so you can back up to removable media what ever files that you dont want to lose .

[pagejeffrey]

Hey.... that's why you're the expert and I'm a newbie...

Thanks... I'll do that... I don't really have that many files that I care about on there but I'd like a few backed up on CD before I wipe everything and start over.

Ummm... right after I've finished re-installing LINUX again.

I figured if I can get LILO back on there I would be able to just load up XP like before.

Thanks again.

Jeffrey

[pagejeffrey]

That worked Great! :D

I'll have to write that down... FIXMBR eh... good idea. Now I can copy all 2 of my files back to my laptop for safekeeping while I play around some more.

Thanks again.

Jeffrey

PS. I think I'll wipe everything and start over they way you suggested ealier as well.

[CrashTestDummy9]

Im glad some of my suggestions were helpful but please dont call me an expert . I first installed Linux Mandrake 8.0 a yr ago and couldnt figure it out . I tried for 2 months and I learned a little but got frustrated . I removed it and didnt reinstall again untill about a month ago . Most of what I learned about troubleshooting I got from this website . Im just another newbie like you and one day you will probably help me as well as others learn things we either didnt know or couldnt figure out . Good luck.

[pagejeffrey]

NUTS! It didn't work... I moved my E: drive to the end of the partition with PM and converted it to FAT32. Then I created a new FAT32 partition right after my NTFS XP 5GB partition and rebooted with the Linux install CD.

Everything works as before where I can get into GRUB now and run XP. But again, when I run Linux it loads up all the services and craps out at login. The screen starts flashing and after a while I get a

INIT "X" failed disabling for 5 minutes message.

Any new idea's?

Jeffrey

PS. Thanks for the encouragement, and perhaps one day I'll be able to return the favor.

[Pogo]

I freely admit that I don't have XP or 2 HD's on my home system, but I'm using WIN98SE on a 32-bit format HD when I need to do the WIN thing. I launch Linux using WINUX which has worked flawlessly for me with a number of different *nix distros that I've played with.

It's at:

http://www.linux-france.org/prj/winux/English/

Hope it helps - good luck

[Prodigeez]

hello, ive been reading the post's directed towards 2 OS's on one machine. So far many have given help to those in need, yet what i was going to ask if someone could elaborate a bit. For instance, i have Windows Xp and im hoping to install Mandrake 8.2 on the same system. It's a Fat32 file system as i upgraded it from my millenium. I dont know jack about Partitioning, but everyone here does,... so when they say "partition " and so on.. im lost there, i dont know where to start, i have all 3 discs already to go, but need to know what i can do to make it so i can choose from both at startup, and succesfully run both on the same system. If anyone know's any documentation, or any help towards, this (which is basically what he was asking as well) i would die to get it! lol, im optimistic, but so far im lost, and dont want to do any fatal damage to my machine, which is by the way

Pentium 4 1.4 ghz
512 mb ram pc133
40 gig hd
Fat32 file system
Windows XP upgrade OS
ATI Rage 128 (32 mb) gfx card
on Board Sound Card (VIA ??)
LG 16x10x40
? DVD 16x


thanks for your time, any specific details or direction would Greatly be appreciated, and i hope i further helped the topic starter at finding help, THANK YOU- Derek

[pagejeffrey]

Well, I'm not the only one tryin' to make things work I guess....

When it comes to partitioning, I can help there. I've done it over... and over.... and over... and ... well, you get the point..

You seem to have the same type, more or less, of setup as I do... except I'm using NTFS as my file system for XP since I find it more stable than Fat32 for my OS. I've setup several partitions as you may have read in the previous posts... but I'll elaborate a little further for you here.

5GB NTFS for the XP OS, then I left about 20GB free for use with Linux and another 15GB was converted to FAT32 for windows programs.

Now, remember, make BACKUPS of everything you don't want to lose. If not, I can't be held responsible for what kind of damage you do.

Ok... now do you you have Power Quest Partition Magic 7? If not, I suggest it, it's quite a good little tool. But, if you don't want to fork out 100$ or so, then you can alway reformat your entire system and setup partitions (maybe I should go back a little here and explain partitions....

... think of a partition as a cubicle... each person, or in this case OS and file system, will sit in its own space and files and such will have theirs...

Now what you want is to have a seperate partition for XP, Linux, shared files, etc...)

Windows XP has a disk manager under the system tools that allows you to convert from NTFS to FAT32 or FAT16 or vice-versa. From there you can also setup and configure your partitions.

Worst case scenario if you've already tried to install Linux and nothing works, is you run FIXMBR then reboot. Now reinstall XP using only a small amount of the HD (5GB like I said earlier). During the install process you will have the option to repartition your HD.

Then you install Linux and you use another 20GB of disk space. Again, during install you can setup your own partitions manually.

The dual boot using LILO or GRUB... personally, I like the look of LILO but both work about the same. Be sure to setup under expert mode so you can change the delay time before the default OS boots, otherwise you end up with a very short 5 seconds to hit any key.

After that you run XP disk manager again and format the remaining space as FAT32.

Good luck!

[Prodigeez]

Thank you very much but; $100 :eek: ! How can i do this with the good old cost of nothing, lol.. and im still tiny bit confused, how can i do this no hastle from resizing and what not, ive heard of many problems with this :confused: :confused: be patient , im new lol thanks so much

[CrashTestDummy9]

do a google search for FOSI and click on a kickmeto or slingmeto link . Hes got PM 7 Pro on there . Its free . <~~~~~~~for evaluation purposes only of course. ;)

[Prodigeez]

Gotta love those Demo's, don't know what i'd do without em ;) thx

[streamyx]

I'm thinking of installing XP and RH Linux 7.2 on my pc... I got a 40gb hardisk which i've partitioned into 10gb.. 10gb.. and 20gb.. can i install both of these OS in the same hardisk? if yes, how do i do it... i was thinking to format my drive c: which is the 10gb drive... i wanna leave the 2 others partition untouched.. can i repartition this 10gb so it can fits win XP and Linux in it? if can.. how do i partition it?