Which SATA harddrive Do i install the Bootloader to/?
 

Hello everyone, I have 2 SATA harddrives. One has windows, the other one is completely out of the box brand new. I'm going to install SuSE 10.0 to the 200 gig (new harddrive) then my old harddrive (160 Gigs) will still have windows xp home edit. sp2. Problem is, i heard SATA hsa a hard problem determining which is the master and which is the slave because there is no jumper pins invovled. I don't want to mess up the windows MBR. Is there a way to make Linux the master and windows the slave, so I can install the boot loader onto the Linux harddrive which is 200 gigs, so that way, when i start up my machine it should go right to the b00t loader and will let me choose if i want Linux or Windoze right? Thank you! I'm a n00b by the way.

Well, this is partially true. SATA has no jumpers for a reason, it doesn't need them as 1 device per chain, period. This means each chain/drive has its own number. Device 0, 1, 2, etc. This is set by boot order in the bios, and by default numerical order. Assuming you install the drives in numerical order, it will boot lowest device first, unless you change the bios boot order.

With SuSE 10.0, if you install from the disk to a DIFFERENT PARTITION IN THE SAME DRIVE, you can then have boot set automatically with GRUB, the listings on boot will have options for Windows and Linux, and Mem Test, and a Failsafe Linux mode. For 2 different drives, you will have to change device boot order in the bios each tim eyou want Windows or Linux to boot.

Why not just change it to boot the linux drive, then have grub call the other harddrive? Then he would have the dual-boot he is looking for. If you need assistance with the grub configuration after your install, just post back, but this will work for what you need.

Install Grub on linux drive.
Change boot order so linux drive goes first.
Add windows to Grub menu.
Enjoy.

Regards,

Alunduil

I didn't think grub could boot a seperate drive's MBR, I thought it had to be on the same drive. If you are right, sure that would be good way, I just didn't think that was possible.

Wait so will this work? How can i make the new 200 gig SATA harddrive that is going to have linux on it hte master the windows the slave? that way i can install the boot loader to Linux rather then messing with windows MBR.

There is no master or slave with SATA. That is the first part of what you need to understand with the new SATA technology that is different from older PATA(often called IDE) technology. Because it is one per chain, you just have to set the boot order of the drives in the bios. There is no master/slave to set. After looking into it alundil was right, you can indeed load with grub to another drive, though SuSE or others will not auto configure the boot loader for you that way. You will have to edit it yourself to get that much to work.

So, set up new drive, make it first in the boot order(based on which SATA port you plug it into) then install Linux. Once it is installed, updated, configured, you will need to set the boot loader to see your other drive as an option, and then it will appear in the GRUB boot list when you boot up.

Awesome!! thanks alot Redshirt and others!! By wednesday i shall be linux'ed up and be asking even more questions! weee!!!
:)