I am a newbe using Linux, and also a newbe setting up a dual boot system. I currently have XP installed on my pc, and I want to install Suse Linux 9.0 Professional as the second OS. My machine is already configured with an NTFS file system, and I don't want to reconfigure it because I have a lot of data that I don't want to lose. I am thinking about buying a separate external hard drive, and would like to set up Suse on that, and share it also with my XP system. Can anyone give me step by step instructions on how to set up the dual boot. I am very afraid of losing data. "According to Windos XP in a Nutshell" by O'Reilly, it is as simple as installing the 2nd operating system, and the XP boot manager will take care of everything automatically. I doubt it's that simple. Please help.

Thank you in advance.

i have rh9 running - it works fine - i use GRUB to dual boot the systems.... only one prob is writing between the partitions ... i read from NTFS using an NTFS driver for linux BUT it is supposed to be dangerous writing to it - thus i have a small 4gb partion at the end of my linux drive which is fat32 - linux is safe read writing to it and so is windows

hope this helps

Thanks, it helps to know you did it and it can be done, but as a newbie, I would appreciate step by step procedures on how to set up the dual boot.

Thanks.

i am a total newbie aswell - this is how:

if you want to have a place to move files between windows and linux then make a partion using windows of about 4Gb on your spare drive - format it with FAT32 not NTFS

got red hat linux bible with 3 disk set of red hat 9

installed it - i used custom - but you can use any of the options you want to - server WIPES ALL OF YOUR DATA ON ALL OF YOUR DRIVES - so if you want to keep windows DONT use the server install

during the install you have to choose a bootloader - i use GRUB which is fairly standard - you get a nice graphical screen and you arrow beteen linux and winodws on mine

it will take between 10 - 30 mins to install the packages you want - depends on what you chose

once its installed get first an NTFS driver for linux (google it) if you need help there are loads of posts in linux questions about NTFS

mount the newly installed NTFS driver - this allows linux to see the windows drive

mount the FAT32 partiion

i changed my /etc/fstab to automatically mount the drives (this is the file which tells linux what to call the drives - ish)

once again do a search or ask in linux questions about drive options etc (if you want my fstab i can put it up on the forum)


then reboot and boot to windows, put a file in the FAT32 partion and test it all out

if you need help just ask

Thanks again for your help. I think we are off on the wrong track though. I am installing Suse Linux, not Redhat, and I don't care if I can share files from Windows to linux. I just want to know how to set up my system dual boot, and I would like to keep my filesystem NTFS if possible. I want to have step by step procedures for setting up the dual boot process correctly so I don't lose data in my Windows XP system. I thank you for your effort though

My english is very bab, hope you understand me.

My disk and partitions:

HDA1 15MB /boot (EXT2 partition)
HDA2 20 GB XP partition with NTFS2
HDA3 500MB swap
HDA4 15GB / (EXT2 partition)

I use GRUB installed in te master boot record.
With this configuration, logued in SUSE9, only can REED any fyles saved in the XP partition because SUSE CAN´T WRITE ON NTFS2 PARTITIONS.
If you want to save data in the XP partition logued in SUSE9, you must generate a FAT32 partiton.

GOOD LUCK !!!

if this helps mine are

hda1 - ntfs
hda2-8 - linux and swap

i use grub because its easy to configure - you can use lilo to do it aswell - if you dont have any free space you need to get something like partition magic or something to resize the ntfs part to make some room for linux

you can get linux running on a different file system that ext2 (at least you could on 6.2) but i know nothing about it

My suggestion is to procede as follow:

A- set up BIOS to boot from CD/Floppy

B- boot from you distro CD/Floppy and do a regular setup Linux on the second hard-disk In this process you should not install lilo or grub on the MBR. At most install grub on the partition where you install the system (actually where you put the /boot folder).

C- the Linux disk (named hdb) will have several partitions I guess you have the boot on the hdb1 or hdb2, but any will do. You can also have a window partition (may be named D:\ in windows) using part of the disk. I assume you have /dev/hdb1 but chenge this with your partition in what follows (to check do "fd" and look for the parition holding /boot or / if /boot has no dedicated partition).

D- in linux install grub for you distribution and do two grub-install like follows
"grub-install /dev/fd0" (you need a formatted and mounted disk, also this will not touch your MBR of the main HD). See also "man grub-install".
Aafter that you can boot normally (from HD) for windows and from floppy for grub. Grub will not spend much on the floppy since you can set it up to use a kernel from the /dev/hdb1.

When you get in grub you have a shell where to issue commands. If: you have a kernel in /vmlinuz, to boot you should issue the following commands in the grub shell:

1) root (hd1,0) <- this means disk 2 partition 1 (alas grub counts from 0)
2) kernel /vmlinuz <- this instructs grub where to find the kernel
3) boot

if you use initrd and have an image in /initrd.img you shoul issue another command between step 2 and 3
2.5) initrd /initrd.imgt <- before the boot command

for me this works, besides I have a fat32 partition on disk C:\ which is totally ignored in ths process.

E -You can automate this by writing a file menu.lst with the commands in the floppy under the boot directory. To do this consult grub documentation at the gnu site http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/man...ode/index.html under "Configuration"

hope it helps
regards

Thanks for your replies everyone. This gives me some stuff to work with. I have to pick up another hard drive before I begin working on it.

Also a newbie with a similar issue.
Already have a 20 GB HD with SuSE 9 Pro (in English) on it and installed. Just bought an HP Pavilion 3000+ w/ 160 GB HD and Win XP (in German). I would like to put the 20 GB drive into the new machine. Will any of the above suggestions work without additional work? Is there an issue as to which drive is slave/master?
for giggles and laughs, I originally tried to get SuSE and W2K on the same 20 GB drive and ended up with SuSE only and could not get Windows to install on the drive afterwards.

If you just want to tinker with linux why not try one of the CD-Live (or whatever) distro's like Knoppix - it boots directly and runs entirely from the CD. Knoppix one that I know that will at least see an NTFS drive, but it usually stuffs up trying to write to the drive, it is not meant to be a trusted NTFS support thou.

also XP only automatically sets up multi/dual/boot if XP is installed last.

also as mentioned earlier you'll need a fat32 partition, and it's usually recommended to have C: as a fat32 partition when using dualboot - unless you really want XP running on NTFS, which is also recommended

.