I've been playing around with different distros of linux for a couple months and feel I'm not getting as much out of it as I should, so I decided to set up my Internet machine to dual boot. I figure if I can get this thing set up properly, I'll be well on my way to learning about linux. So, I've got this 450MHz machine with 192 Meg RAM and an 80 gig hard drive. As you can see, this is an old machine, and it doesn't recognize a drive that big. I have to trick the system into seeing it with the Western Digital Data Lifeguard software. Works fine with Win 98.

Now I'm installnig Vector Linux and I'm all the way to installing LILO. It asks where to load it. On my test machine, I had it load in the MBR to dual boot. Worked great there. However, since I'm using the Data Lifeguard software, I don't know it that uses the MBR.

So, my questions are.

Does anyone know if the WD software makes use of the MBR, and if not, would writing the LILO to there screw up the WD software? I have an e-mail in to them, but don't know how long that's going to take.

If I'm not able to install to there, anyone have a suggestion that would work? I don't want to have to pop in a floppy each time I need to boot up.

F_M

Is your harddisk reconized by the system bios, or is the WD software loaded from another dik?

If you big WD disk is the only disk you have a good chance of gettting linux to run on th eold machine, even with a huge hd.

You should setup a small partition for boot (about 100 MB is ok)
The thing is that if you can the the system bios to load you linux kernel, linux will handle the harddiskcontroler from then on.

A have a 80Gig HD installed in a Pentium 200MMX box.
With this machine the single big disk solution did not work, so I grabbed a 400 MB(!) disk from my cellar, and configured this one as primary master (boot disk).
Now /boot is /dev/hda1 (400MB) and / is /dev/hdb1 (80Gig).
This works without props.

The trick is to get the System bios to read and execute the linux kernel (/boot/vmliunz).

"viel erfolg"

The BIOS sees a 540 Meg drive. The WD software is the first thing loaded. If I want to boot from floppy, I have to wait until the WD software kicks in and press Ctrl to interupt. Then it asks where to boot from. I feel sure that it would not be a problem booting Linux, but since I want a dual boot setup, I'm concerned that it won't work.

F_M

Update the BIOS. Once the BIOS sees the drive at the correct size, all of your problems are over. Without the BIOS seeing the 80 gig drive, any changes to the MBR are dangerous.

Peace,
JimBass

Unfortunately, there's no updates to the BIOS. Old computer, no new updates. Oh well.

F_M

Toss it.
I did similar on the weekend - P90, 64Meg, non-ATX, no CD-boot option, no BIOS flash available anywhere.

Time for new kit.

I rarely throw any computers away. So I doubt I will be doing it with this one. I could load it up fine to run just Linux, but I really would rather keep Windoze on it also.

F_M

Fair enough
In my case I was under instructions from my "better half". It is being donated to the council recycling centre; if someone is prepared to pay (anything) for it, at least (hopefully) some worthy cause benefits.

Or just get a smaller hard drive. You can pick up 40 gig drives for very cheap here in the states. I would expect that pattern is the same regardless of where you live. I particularly like pricewatch.com and froogle.google.com

Peace,
JimBass

I'm thinking about swapping this drive with a smaller one that's in one of the other systems. But I'm not sure yet.

It's strange, you can get a BIG drive for $30 after rebates, but sometimes it's hard to find a smaller drive.

F_M

That's how market economies work - produce what you can sell most of.
Try buying "old" memory, it's obscenely expensive.