Help! I want to practice setting up a dual boot (one Windows OS and the other Red Hat). I bought an old Compaq to practice on and unfortunately haven't yet figured how to get into the "setup" to check the bios boot sequence. But anyway - I wanted to reformat the HD and install Windows (or DOS) but I have done a cold boot with the DOS install disk in the floppy drive and with a Windows CD in that drive, but neither will boot - the current Red Hat OS I have installed keeps on coming up - any ideas how I can get my system to recognize something other than the current OS? I'm studying form my LCA and don't have a lot (to put it mildly) experience. Thanks.

To bring up the bios setup, try pressing the F10 key while the cursor blinks in the upper right corner of the monitor. Then check your boot sequence. It looks like the hard drive was set to be first.

Use Lilo or Grub to set up dual boots. I suggest using a lilo boot floppy to start with (since that's all I know), and adding
a entry for DOS and Linux partition.

Have you taken any of the SAIR exames yet? Why did you decide on SAIR instead of LPI.

One other note , they cliam it 's a multi-distro test?
they are sections that deal with rpm, apt-get and tar ball?

I passed the CompTIA Linux+ test, one test, one Cert.

linuxcool is right, you will really want to get into that bios. If you post the model on here, or go to compaq's website, maybe you can find out how to get into the BIOS. I have worked on 3 different computers lately and found 3 different ways to get into the bios. On 1 (the ASUS mobo) it was pressing DEL during startup, another (IBM Thinkpad) restarting and holding down the F1 key, the other (A FIK I think) it is pressing F2 during bootup.

Once you get in, that is where you will change your boot order. CDROM first, Floppy second, HD last.

Don't forget to save it before exiting.

Restart with the disc in, and you will get the install screen.

Found out what the problem is - with Compaq's apparently has the bios setup located in a hidden sector on their HDs, since I replaced the HD - no sector. I did put another HD in and booted to the a: and then put the HD back in and deleted partitions and formatted - I still haven't been able to get into the bios setup, but I was able to load Windows - haven't figured out how to set up the dual boot yet. Thanks for all your help.

To Pickledbeans – I answered an ad in the paper re a company offering the LCA courses and if passed all certifications, then a “hands-on” test needed to be passed and the person would be immediately hired (and at a nice salary rate).