I wanted to make my laptop able to boot both windows vista and slackware. And i keep getting a problem. Here are the steps I took!

1.I removed the hard drive that had Windows Vista on it from the laptop.(i did this so i would not damage it)

2.I inserted a new hard drive and installed slackware on it.
(it worked fine untill i put both hard drive in)

3.I put the windows vista hard drive in with the slackware hard drive.(ween i did this slackware stops working)

THE PROBLEM

This problem only happens ween i have both hard drives in the laptop...

if the laptop has just the slackware hard drive in it = slackware runs ok

If the laptop has both windows and slackware in it = windows runs ok , slackware does not finish loading.

P.S. Ween i have both hard drives in and i want to boot slackware i open the boot menu at the begining.(ween u turn on the computer)

Hi,

Welcome to LQ & Slackware!

I can understand your caution about removing the original hard drive. What type of drives, IDE or SATA?

If IDE then you need to make that new drive a 'Slave' since your existing drive is probably configured as 'Master/Single'.

If the drives are SATA then just place the drive on the proper connector on your motherboard.

To use the Slackware Install cd1/DVD you can now boot with either the default kernel 'hugesmp.s' by pressing enter or select the 'huge.s' kernel. Both of these kernels are installer kernels. The generic kernels are recommended for daily use.

You should read the Slackware 12.2 CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT, UPGRADE.TXT and RELEASE_NOTES?

Once you have booted into the installation you should now be able to configure your new drive as desired. Once you have done with the install you will be asked about installing 'lilo'. 'lilo' is a bootloader that is used by Slackware. You can either write the bootloader to your 'MBR' of the master or to the superblock of your new install. With the 'MBR' and you have selected the proper information for your 'Vista' then you would be able to select the desired OS at boot.

You could configure the M$ to control your booting but I prefer the open source method(s).

If you select to write to the superblock then you would need to use something to allow you to boot the Slackware OS. You could use 'USB flash' or the install media then pass the proper information to the kernel at boot. If you read the boot screen when you use the install media there is a good example that you can use with your configuration information to boot.

You could do a search here on LQ for a Slackware install with a Vista machine. I know this has been covered many times.

'Vista SP1 won't install on dual-boot systems' is a must read if you are using SP1.

'Dual/Multi Booting With Vista' is another good reference.

There are several other good links in the 'Get Slackware® Linux' section of 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

thank you verry much onebuck!!!

this really helped now atleast i can start linux with the 2 hard drives in...

im kind of new to linux and im trying to learn the most i can...
i dont know how to configure the boot stuff ... but im reading on it...
thank you for your help