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I have decided to give Linux a drive of it's own on my machine and dual boot it with Win XP. SO here is what I see my PC configuration to be...
2 80GB IDE drives.
Master IDE = all for Windows XP
Slave IDE = all for Linux
Dual booting between the 2 with Lilo.
I have a few question about this process since I have never put a new harddrive in a machine before, just readjusted partitions to install Linux in the past.
1.) I am most concerned about this: Lets say I install the new slave drive and the bios recognized it just fine. I don't Do anything with Linux at this point. Then I reboot the PC. WOn't WinXP recognize this new drive as New hardware and try to take it for itself?
2.) If I install the new drive, then shutoff the PC before it can load to windows, boot to Linux and partition the new drive to ext2 or 3 and stop. Will this prevent windows from seeing this drive and taking it for itself since it isn't free space anymore?
3.) When installing Lilo which MBR do I put it in the one for the 1st drive or second?
4.) Can Lilo boot both WinXP and Linux? I know you can with 95 and Linux, but what about XP - is it any different?
5.) Once everything is installed and I reboot my PC I should see the Lilo Screen each time to choose what to boot, correct?
1. No, XP will not auto partition or format the new drive.
2. XP ignores anything that isn't a FAT or NTFS filesystem. What distro are you planning to install? If installing Mandrake or Redhat then specify expert mode to keep from overwriting your XP.
3,4,5. I would probably install lilo to your linux boot partition and then use XP's boot loader. lilo would then be able to boot different linux kernels. It would leave the MBR of the primary drive intact.
I am planning on installing Slackware 9.0. I don't understand a few things though. I was thinking that when I put the new harddrive in, the Plug and Play would kick in and Windows would see it. Second If I use the XP boot loader how would it be able to boot Linux? I am not aware that you can edit the boot loader for XP? Basically I need the system to start and ask me which OS to boot to, then I would select one and I am off. I also don't want XP to clobber my Linux drive and take it for itself.
Does anybody have expereince with dual booting in this manner. I am asking so I reduce my chance of problems now rather than later.
Quote:
Originally posted by michaelk 1. No, XP will not auto partition or format the new drive.
2. XP ignores anything that isn't a FAT or NTFS filesystem. What distro are you planning to install? If installing Mandrake or Redhat then specify expert mode to keep from overwriting your XP.
3,4,5. I would probably install lilo to your linux boot partition and then use XP's boot loader. lilo would then be able to boot different linux kernels. It would leave the MBR of the primary drive intact.
Like I said XP does not auto partition or format unused space. XP's boot loader will display a menu list. This should work for debian too. XP boots the same way as W2k.
Some people have had success with installing lilo or grub to the MBR for dual booting XP/W2K and some haven't. I am forced to use a boot floppy disk for dual booting my W2k / linux PC. But thats beside the point.
Like I said XP does not auto partition or format unused space. XP's boot loader will display a menu list. This should work for debian too.
Some people have had success with installing lilo or grub to the MBR for dual booting XP/W2K and some haven't. I am forced to use a boot floppy disk for dual booting my W2k / linux PC. But thats beside the point.
Wow, thanks. I think I get it now after reading some of the links you posted. I didn't know that you could change the boot loader for windows to boot Linux. I guess my couple of questions are, does the winXP/NT/2000 boot loader have any trouble loading Linux if it is on a seperate drive rather than a seperate partition? Do I have to have a seperate /boot partition or is it ok to have the boot info in the / partition? Thanks
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