partition problem
 

I rebuilt my pc with Slackware, changing the partitions etc. I need to swap a windows hard drive into the box temporarily to test something. When I swap it, and the pc tried to boot, it sees the windows hard drive, but then says it can't boot it from it. I have subsequently tested this hard drive in another pc and it will boot to it fine. I'm guessing it is because I no longer have a "windows" partition on my linux box. Can I just add a partition via slackware and have both work? Thanks for any advice in advance.

When you say "swap", do you really mean it? Do you normally run your "linux box" with a single hard drive? And if so, are you really removing it and replacing it with the "Windows" drive? How old is the motherboard in your "linux" box? I know that older MB BIOS's have problems when the OS partition is located beyond certain boundaries. That might explain why that "Windows" drive will boot in another machine but not in your "linux box". Bottom line: you need to give more information.

reply
 

I have two physical hard drives. One with slackware Linux 7 and one with windows 98 se. My original intent was to just run linux on this pc, but now I have to temporarily run windows 98 se. I am physically swapping the drives. Before repartitioning the box and loading slackware, it was running windows 98 on an identical drive to the one I am trying to install now. So I know the drive works in this box. I'm thinking I have to do something with lilo and partitioning?

If you have two different hd one with linux and one with slackware and you are removing one and switching to the other then if the hd with slackware is sitting on your desk while you are booting windows then the one with slackware has nothing to do with the other,have I got this right? or did you remove windows and now it won't boot?I am a little confused.

clarification
 

I have one hard drive that is all windows 98se, a second hard drive that is slackware linux 7.0. Because I didn't believe I would ever need a windows partiton on this pc again, when I loaded slackware, I wiped out my windows 98se hard drive and only created the linux partitions so that is all lilo knows about. Thus this is my hard drive with linux only loaded. Subsequently, I have an identical win 98 hard drive to the one I originally changed to linux. I need to be able to boot this hard drive up in this pc.
All I want to do is be able to switch hard drives and when the windows 98se drive is in the pc boot to that os, and then put the linux slackware hard drive back into the pc and boot to that. When I disconnect the linux hard drive and connect the windows 98 hard drive - the cmos recognized it, but give me a message it can't boot - I believe lilo has a hook into the boot procedure and only knows about the linux hard drive/os.

So what is the exact error message?

The motherboard BIOS doesn't care what OS is installed on the drive. You say the Win 98 drive works in another PC. Are you attaching the drive to the same connector as the Slack drive?

yes, I am disconnecting the power cable and bus cable from the back of the linux drive and putting them on the win98 drive - also both drives are set the same - to master. So as long as only one is connected at a time it should work. I think lilo has some thread to the boot sequence that is telling the boot to look for lilo so when I put in the windows drive it can't find lilo. I understand how partitioning works and that both drives have their own partition tables.

the MBR is located on the harddrive. If you are putting in a whole new drive lilo has nothing to do with the other drive.