I installed a 2nd hard drive for fedora core 6 and I can't get it to boot yet. I partition it /dev/hdb1 / ext3 10997mb /dev/hdb2 /home ext3 18998mb /dev/hdb3 swap 8166mb and had the bootloader install on hdb1. I set my hard drives cable select. I put a password on my bios. so now I can't adjust the bios to boot on 2nd hard drive. my bios has my first boot as cd-rom, but master still boots first drive. I have to erase or disable my bios password and get rid of password. if anyone has any idea's. http://linuxquestions.cachefly.net/i.../forum_new.gif

I'm guessing that really depends on the kind of computer you have. You may have to Google around for that information by using your motherboard name as a keyword. It may just simply involve unscrewing stuff, removing a battery, waiting a few seconds, then putting it back in.

If you don't have any luck fixing your BIOS, you may have to swap your drives and reinstall/reconfigure GRUB to get it to recognize hda as the boot drive rather than hdb. This may require a Live CD or a Linux on another partition. If you don't have one of these already, I'd recommend you get an Ubuntu Live CD or something so it will be easier to fix boot problems in the future.

In post #5 of the thread link below, I show how to install grub onto the MBR of the drive set to boot in the bios using the Fedora installation disc, do not be afraid to over write the Windows boot loader in the first drive set to boot in the bios, you can always restore it with the installation disc also. Grub should be installed in the MBR of the primary drive which is usually set to boot first in the bios. The bios is not a boot loader, using the bios to switch drives is an inconvenient way to dual boot. If you absolutely prefer to do it the hard way, get the manual for your mother board from the manufacturer's web site to find how to re-set bios password, sometimes it involves moving a jumber's position for 10 seconds.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=544411

Hello, thanks for reply. I took the battery out and put it back,that didn't work. I have a dual bios on motherboard. I can download the manual and look for that jumper I have to move.

Just a little note,
When you re-set the bios, you will need to re-set all settings including bus speeds with a multiplier value. And a few more complicated settings need to be done properly or you may damage the computer and may never be able to boot it again. Unless you are a technician or plan on spending allot of time studying every setting that needs to be set in the bios, you should not play in this area. You can spend a couple minutes with the Fedora CD/DVD and have your dual boot running properly, or you could end up wasting a couple weeks and a few dollars when you end up bringing it to a computer repair shop so you can boot it up again, if you did not ruin anything by then.
In the thread link below, I show how to restore Windows XP boot loader in the MBR if you decide to take the right approach to dual booting and need a back up plan.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=547057

Hello, update, I had to push enter to remove password. But I set bios to boot from 2nd drive and and it says grub and keyboard don't work, so push reset to reboot system. the system taking much longer to boot from 1st drive now. My cpu is running 10% warmer then normal, I added a dvd burner and 2nd hard drive on this up grade. I guess I will stay with one hard drive systems for now.I will study on dual boot systems. thanks for your help. May the source be with you.I keep windows xp only on laptop. All my desktops have linux os. Time to built 1300 amd duron white box or look for 2100+ cpu.

The reason it won't boot even when you set the bios to boot the slave drive is because you need to study the order of the boot process. You'll find you installed the boot loader in the wrong place as I've been trying to tell you all along. But obviously, you know better.

It appears you are right,because I did a install of centos 5 on 2nd drive and it won't boot. So I removed master hard drive and installed 2nd hard drive as master and it will not boot, so I will reinstall centos 5 on this drive. This way I can test the drive because 6 months ago I tried to put windows are it and it didn't boot.I hope linux will erase any windows files on this drive. I reinstalled centos 5 and will not boot. time to take the case apart and reset bios and put 1st hard drive with pcbsd 1.34 back in and hope it will boot.

All Linux distributions will have the MBR of the first drive selected by default to install the boot loader (/dev/hda). Normally, the first drive is the drive set to boot in the bios. So the installer will install the boot loader where it should be. Your mistake is changing the location to the first sector of the / or /boot partition.
Unless you setup the existing boot loader in the MBR of the first drive to boot that partition on the second drive, you'll never boot it.
But if you were to install the boot loader of your latest installation where the installer suggests, you would have a dual boot able to boot both OS's without playing in the bios.
It only take an hour to setup Fedora on a second drive and have a list of both OS's (the ones installed on the first and second drive) at boot up if you just leave the settings the way the installer suggests and install the boot loader in /dev/hda, not /dev/hdb1. So what could have taken an hour has turned into a many day event.
Most people can only learn by their mistakes, doesn't matter how good the teacher is.

Okay, I will try to dual boot with fedora core. My pcbsd 1.34 would not boot, grub error,so I erase the drive and installed mephis 6.5 and it works very well and boots faster than most linux os. I will reinstall 2nd drive soon with fedora 6 and put the mbr in the right place.Good thing I burn many distro's to test. thanks for your good advise.

Hello Junior hacker,I reinstalled 2nd hard drive and put fedora 6 on drive and it will not boot, So I installed centos 5 on 2nd drive and it boots fine. Now the real test turn off system. Turn system back on and I hope to have a choice of two linux distro's, mephis 6.5 -centos 5.

bad news, my dual boot don't work. but 2nd drive boots every time, it boots much faster than 1st drive use too.I gues I got a two drive system with 160 gb. but can only use 80 gb at this time.

Might have to edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst or /etc/lilo.conf (depending on which one is installed) to have the right configuration for the distribution on the first drive. There is a similar instance happening here:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=547988