cant get linux to co-exist with win XP
 

i have been trying to install linux v9 on my system which has win xp on it. I have partitioned the drive and formatted and then done a fresh install of xp. Then I installed linux on the free space (13gb). I installed the bootloader on the mbr first of all. Both seemed to work at first, I was switching between both systems ok (restarting). When I closed my system down for the evening and rebooted the next day I could not get into either system. I reformatted and partitioned (started from scratch). I installed the bootloader on the linux partition. Once again everything seemed ok and I could switch between both systems, restarting my system several times. But again when I switched my systems on the next day I got a blue screen of death from xp (stop error: 0x0000007b) and could not mount files in linux. I am now reformatting my systems again. Can anyone help me solve this problem, or suggest a way to get the two systems to co-exist?


Thanks from a stressed out student:cry:

Im having a similar problem, and though I cant help you I sympathize a lot. I'm about at my wits end.

I have been at this since 4pm on Friday and it is now 11am on monday morning I have formatted my system 4 times and I am getting really stressed. I need linux to complete my unix programming class but I really need help. If you have any luck let me know.

Is it possible for you to post the "/etc/lilo.conf" or your
"/boot/grub/menu.lst" so I can help you?

cheers,
ibuk01

try other versions of linux. like suse, mandrake.

Following partitioning worked great for me:

45GB drive:
part 1 : NTFS
part 2 : ext2/3 (boot)
part 3 : swap
part 4 : ext2/3 (root)

It seems to be important to install XP at the very beginning of your
HDD because NT4/2K/XP are memorizing the partitionnumber in the
"C:\boot.ini". The fact that you are rebooting afterwards and every-
thing went fine seems very strange...

A normal power-off after the XP-Installation/Linux works too, or
did you do only a software-reset?

cheers,
IBUK01

btw: sorry for re-editing the former article again and again ...

I run XP dualboot with Slack and I'm very proud of it :)
The only and the main thing that you should REMEMBER is: don't install LILO/GRUB in MBR!! It can ruin everything!
Here is the way I did it:
Installed LILO in MBR (I'm very sorry of that.. now).
Made a copy of the MBR using 'dd' and saved it to a file called bootsect.lnx
Booted from a win98 startup disk.
fdisk /mbr
Installed a win98 (about 10 minutes work)
Over this installed winXP (new installation, not upgrade, using FAT32 as filesystem)
Copied bootsect.lnx to the win partition.
Added following line in boot.ini: C:\bootsect.lnx=" Linux "
Enjoyed winXP :P

I have installed slackware 9.0 with windows XP

It is very simple, but you must be carefull when installing the linux loader (LILO)
That is, you can install LILO in different locations, like the MBR, Root (the superblock of your
root linux partition) or Floppy

First of all, install xp at the beginning of your hard disk.
Second, install linux...
When configuring the lilo, select the superblock option.

The remaining part is to peel the bootsector from you Linux partition as follows
dd if=/dev/hdaX of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

Now, you need to copy this file to your windows partition, add a line in the boot.ini as ivanatora said.

That's all, good luck!