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Old 03-15-2005, 09:02 AM   #1
mozetti
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Registered: Jun 2004
Location: Germany
Distribution: Slack 10.1
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2 HDD, XP & Suse(for now), boot loader on each HDD?


Hey all,

I'm making my second foray into Linux and have got Suse9.1 Pro installed on my laptop. I don't have *nix installed on my desktop yet, but I'll be doing that soon.

Desktop Setup:

hda - 100GB WD ATA HDD -- old copy of WinXP & old boot drive
--this is the Master on the 1st Channel (P-ATA)
-----Slave on 1st Channel is a DVDRW
--it was my original install of WinXP
--hda1 is an active partition and contains WinXP
--until I installed a new copy of WinXP on my SATA drive, i booted from this drive.

hdb - 200GB WD SATA HDD -- new install of Win XP & boot drive
--this is the Master on the 3rd Channel (SATA)
--this is my new install of WinXP
--hdb1 is an active partition and contains WinXP
--this is the drive I boot from, configured via the BIOS boot device select.

Plans
-I will be installing Linux on hda1

-I will be using the Windows bootloader to dual boot

-What I'm thinking, is that I'd install the Linux bootloader (Grub/Lilo) to the MBR of hda (Linux) so that, if I wanted, I could use hda (Linux) to boot instead of hdb (WinXP).

Questions


-Can I install the Linux bootloader (Grub/Lilo) to the MBR of hda (Linux) without screwing up the MBR of hdb (WinXP)?

-I know that boot.ini on hdb (WinXP) can point to Grub/Lilo installed to the Linux partition (hda1) for dual-booting, but can boot.ini on hdb (WinXP) point to the linux bootloader if it is installed to the MBR of hda (Linux)?
 
Old 03-15-2005, 09:09 AM   #2
chbin
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Registered: Mar 2005
Distribution: slackware-current
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nop windows boot.ini can't be made point to grub in the MBR.
 
Old 03-15-2005, 09:13 AM   #3
abisko00
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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: Munich
Distribution: Ubuntu
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I see a problem to access the bootloader on hdb. AFAIK there is always a bootloader required on the first primary controller to load windows. If there is another Windows on hda, there is no problem, but if there is a Linux bootloader you need to use this to load Windows. That should be not problem (in theory), but I read a lot of reports, that grub get's confused when more than one controller type is used.

I would suggest to have Windows on hda and Linux on hdb if you would like to use the Windows bootloader.
 
Old 03-15-2005, 09:25 AM   #4
mozetti
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Registered: Jun 2004
Location: Germany
Distribution: Slack 10.1
Posts: 37

Original Poster
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Quote:
Originally posted by abisko00
I see a problem to access the bootloader on hdb. AFAIK there is always a bootloader required on the first primary controller to load windows. If there is another Windows on hda, there is no problem, but if there is a Linux bootloader you need to use this to load Windows. That should be not problem (in theory), but I read a lot of reports, that grub get's confused when more than one controller type is used.

I would suggest to have Windows on hda and Linux on hdb if you would like to use the Windows bootloader.
I'm currently booting using the boot.ini on hdb to dual-boot between the 2 copies of XP, but I haven't tried disabling the active partition on hda, yet. That was actually my plan once i get the new XP install customized - delete the old XP on hda1 and install linux to it.

I was hoping to keep an active partition on each drive (hda1 & hdb1) so that I could use either to boot (in the event one fails), and just using the WinXP boot.ini to load XP or Linux via Grub/Lilo in the hda MBR. The first reply pretty much kills that idea, but now I'm worried that if I change hda1 to a non-active partition that I won't be able to boot anything ... more research I guess. Any other input is appreciated.

Thanks!
 
  


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