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Old 06-20-2003, 01:42 AM   #1
B16MCC
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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: UK
Distribution: Mandrake & Redhat
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Dual Booting Mandrake 9.1 With Xp Pro


Hi guys, I want to install Mandrake 9.1 and have it Dual Boot with my existing Windows XP Pro. My plan is to install Linux on a seperate drive which is currently displayed as F: in windows.

I'm ok preparing the drive and making the correct partition formats using Partition Magic 8 from within windows. Also its probably worth mentioning a little detail about my hardware setup. My Windows XP is on C drive as normal , C drive is a raid 0 configuration running 2 ide drives from a controller built into my mobo. Now, F drive (proposed linux drive) is running from an ata133 pci card.

After installing mandrake I know I have to setup the bootloader. My first question is:- Do I install the bootloader to the drive on the ata133 card ? (Pretty sure I don't put it on the windows drive)

Second :- Will the boot loader pickup the windows installation on the my raid and give me choice to boot to it ?

Third :- Am I right in thinking I will have to change my BIOS so that the system looks at the drive on the ata133 card in order to boot the system to the bootloader ?

Sorry if I waffled on a little, any help would be greatly appreciated as I am VERY new to the world of linux.
 
Old 06-20-2003, 10:38 AM   #2
Mara
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Registered: Feb 2002
Location: Grenoble
Distribution: Debian
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Re: Dual Booting Mandrake 9.1 With Xp Pro

Quote:
Originally posted by B16MCC

After installing mandrake I know I have to setup the bootloader. My first question is:- Do I install the bootloader to the drive on the ata133 card ? (Pretty sure I don't put it on the windows drive)
Yes. You can do it during the installation.

Quote:
Second :- Will the boot loader pickup the windows installation on the my raid and give me choice to boot to it ?
It can, but only if you have the Linux drive choosen as first to boot in BIOS (Mandrake will detect Windows in both cases, but if you don't choose the right drive, the bootloader won't boot).

You can also use XP bootloader and have Linux option in it (more about it later).

Quote:
Third :- Am I right in thinking I will have to change my BIOS so that the system looks at the drive on the ata133 card in order to boot the system to the bootloader ?
Yes, if you don't want to install Linux bootlader on Windows drive. If you prefer to use XP bootloader, you can leave it as it is. Note that even if you use XP bootloader, Linux will need its own (which can be started from XP bootloader).

Quote:
Sorry if I waffled on a little, any help would be greatly appreciated as I am VERY new to the world of linux.
I hope it wasn't too compilcated. The main thing is that you need to decide if you prefer to have 2 bootloaders (XP and Linux) or one (Linux). When you decide, write again, then I can write you how to do it

BTW When you're repartitioning remember to delete all the partitions from Linux drive (or resize the ones you have) and reboot Windows to let it see the change - it was reported by many people that when you install and resize in Linux installer, Windows can't relize that there's another type of partition (not the one there was) and it works really slow (Windows reinstall is a good and working method in this case, but I guess it's not what you'd like to do).
 
Old 09-18-2003, 09:45 AM   #3
coupace
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Registered: Sep 2003
Posts: 6

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similar problem

Hi,
I'm having a similar sort of problem, i've been a windows user for many years, and wish to get into using linux.

(on a 20gig HD)
-I've Win XP installed on a partition, NTFS 5 gigs
-Installed Mandrake 9.1 on another 5 gig partition (didn't know what file type to make it, the only one i recognized was FAT32)
-left 10 gigs for a FAT32

I went to reboot after the install hoping to get a choice on which operating system to load but only got XP booting as usual.

I see ppl talking on here about bootloaders and that stuff, but i really don't know what that means, so, could someone explain that to me and help me get my system setup so i can boot into both? (am quite willing to go through the linux install again if i screwed up any of the options and such)

I appreciate any help
 
Old 09-18-2003, 10:18 AM   #4
aaa
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Registered: Jul 2003
Location: VA
Distribution: Slack 10.1
Posts: 2,194

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coupace,
The bootloader is the what's on first sector of the first hard disk which the bios reads to load the operating system. This first sector is called the MBR. Windows just puts instructions here pointing to it's partition's boot sector, where it's bootloader is. The Mandrake install is supposed to install a bootloader (either lilo or grub) on the MBR that will load Linux and chain-load the Windows bootloader from the windows partition. If you continued to boot Windows normally (without a menu popping up before it), you didn't install properly. You should choose a Linux filesystem when you install. Common choices are ext2, ext3(I think the install calls this Journalised fs, it's just ext2 with journaling features), and ReiserFS(another journaling filesystem. Journalnig protects data in case of power failure, and you won't have to spend time checking a disk after such a failure. You should also make a Linux partition, if you want to use an empty Windows one, delete it and make a Linux one.

Last edited by aaa; 09-18-2003 at 10:20 AM.
 
Old 09-18-2003, 08:47 PM   #5
coupace
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Sep 2003
Posts: 6

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Smile Thank-you!

thank you muchly, I'm now happily replying to this from within linux
 
  


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