Hi all...

I've recently made the switch from windows to Linux on my main PC (I've been playing working up the courage on one of my older ones :-). So far, I'm very happy. The only issue I have now is that I can't play a lot of my games. I've looked into wine, and that works ok for older games and other "non-directX" programs.

Anyway, I've decided that I want to put an install of windows 2K pro on my system (for gaming purposes only!) and dual boot. The problem is that everything I seem to read about it suggests installing windows first, then Linux. I'm hoping that someone has done it with Linux first and can help me out a bit.

I have a separate 10GB harddrive (/dev/hdb) that I want to use for the windows install. I've figured out that I need to install windows, let it mess up the MBR, then reinstall LILO back on the MBR (basically). The problem is, when I try to install win2k, it tells me that it needs to write something to the "C:" drive and that it can't figure out what the hell is on it. It also tells me to re-partition the drive to make room.

Now, I'd rather not repartition my drive, but I suppose I could if it would work. I'm just trying to get an idea of how it should be partitioned so that windows doesn't complain. Also, if there is a program for linux that can repartition without dataloss, that would be a great help.

Thanks!
Atrivis

(must *twitch* play games...*drool*)

You can always do it the old fashioned way and have two hard-drives period. You unplug your linux drive and plug in only your windows drive, install windows, and switch them manually (and you can always just add windows to the Lilo list later.. that might work)

You have to temporarily make the hdb the primary drive will you are installing windows. Either in the bios, setting the jumper on the drives, or as a last resort just switching the cables around. Then once your done just switch everything back and have lilo or grub boot windows on the second drive.

what games are you keeping windows around for?


Using Cedega I can play all of the games I played on Windows... Call of Duty, Postal II, even Counter Strike Source (given, it doesn't support DX9 so it looks pretty bad, but it still plays.)

UT2004 and Doom III are linux native, and they run pretty dang well.


I even went to a LAN party this past Friday and played everything my friends had... right from Linux. They were pretty amazed. I had installed XP the day before, just to be ready in case I had any problems. I actually ended up breaking my XP install and had to use Linux the rest of the time!

Have any of the articles you have read told you why this is easier?
It is because Windows blows away any other configurations in the MBR during installation.
It is possible to reinstall a boot manager after the installation. It is best to confirm you have the tools and know how to do this before the Windows installation.
That is all there is to it.

Make sure you have a bootable linux CD, knoppix or something similar, I find the slackware CD good enough, install windows to your windows partition and set everything up, then put in your slackware CD or similar when it fires up mount the linux partiton to mnt then run: that should sort you out.

EDIT: oh, if you use the grub bootloader that this won't work, I'm not familiar with grub so can't help you out with that. You will also need to add a section to boot the windows partition