is it possible to boot an OS which is not on the promary hard drive?

i installed win xp first (with NTFS)
then went on to install linux on a second harddrive.
now, the first time i did that (and overwrote windows' boot loader) i couldn't load any OS after the install.

i reinstalled windows, re-installed linux, this time with linux on the primary hard drive.
linux boots fine, windows does not boot.

is it a requirement that windows/linux should be on the first HD?

is there any way to go around that?
also, i'd like not to change the MBR if that's possible.

Windows likes to be on the first drive. Control I guess. You know Billy boy, he hates the compitition. Linux can be put anywhere. You can put in a IDE controller card and install it there as long as BIOS sees the card and drive.

If you are using Grub, switch to lilo or other way around if you are using Grub. When you install Linux make sure to check that it sees windoze. Should point to something like /dev/hda.

Hope that helps.

Are you using SuSE as your distro?

Total newbie here, but I have almost the setup your describing. Win98 on the first hard drive & Linux on the second. Used Lilo during the setup & it didn't mess with my Windows at all.

I am interested in the thread also, as I am preparing to Load RH9 on my system. What I have is two drives, the first is a 40gb drive where Windows is installed, and the second HDD is 100GB.

I have cleaned the 100gb drive off and removed all the partitions from it, and intend on installing RH9 there, but only using maybe 30GB. The remainder I will probably format using a FAT32 format so I can share files between my Windows and Linux systems. Currently I am runninb WIN XP Pro.

I am a little bit skiddish to use GRUB, so I'd like to boot linux from a floppy. I have been through the documentation in the RH9 manual, and it isnt clear on how to create this boot floppy.

I have heard there are probs with GRUB and Windows, that it clobbers the MBR in Windows.

Im looking for guidance on what to do, and what the procedure in the normal RH9 setup I should follow.

thanks,
Kork

Hello I am fresh to linux, thus the name LnuBE2676, anyhow, I too have a problem running XP and Linux RH 9.0. XP has the first whole Hard Drive to itself, and Linux is on the larger second hardive. My boot loader is Grub, and I cannot get it to map, unhide, makeactive the first harddrive, let alone boot WINXP. I dont want to lose what I have on the first hard drive, so re-installing over it for now is not a option. I tried unplugging the second hard drive to just boot xp, and then repartition the second HD, but alas grub would not let me. I was promted with a Grub cant load error. what now?
Secondly is there a way that I could reformat or erase the second hard drive through Linux 9.0? if so I would love to know, but the GRUB problem still remains. Which is how the @# to load WINXP.

pleassssse help

LINuXNooBie2676

Yeah its these problems that I keep hearing about that make me a little skiddish about installing. I absolutely dont want to lose my Win system...even though I have most everything backed up..it would still be a pain to reinstall all my software..

Im a little surprised that the Linux Community would support such an unpredictable tool (at least seemingly) as GRUB, if it keeps on messing up installs.

I want to remove that option completely, and NOT change my MBR just like the first post. Im intuitively thinking that has to do with LILO...and just putting in a boot floppy that has the filesystem on it...but I assume you would have to reset the BIOS to look at the floppy first. But again...has someone installed RH9 like this...with 2 hard drives, and used a boot floppy?

I had the same prob. w/ W2K and SuSE


you just have to get a program called,



are you ready for this???

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Masterbooter

http://www.masterbooter.com/main/news.php?lang=en

get a floppy and just follow the directions!


p.s. setup Linux w/ "do not modify MBR (master boot record)

To those of you having trouble already, I say stick with GRUB. Specifically, when you modify anything in GRUB you wont have to run ANYTHING in order to reboot with your new configuration. With Lilo you will have to (even if it isnt hard to do...forgetting to use lilo properly means you wont be able to boot!)

This said, I think that I remember reading about how GRUB can trick windoze into thinking that it is on the first disk. By the way, how are your harddisks connected to your computer? Are they connected to the first and second IDEs (as I would expect)? Are they master and slave (though I doubt that this would make a difference anyway)?

Anyway, as long as your BIOS detects the harddisks on startup and as long as they arent on some funky IDE controller (like HPT 372 or something) you should be fine.

Olivier,
To be safe, when you install Linux AFTER windoze make sure to make a boot disk. Then if you cant boot into linux (on your second hd) you can use the boot to get into linux to look at the file /boot/grub.conf
Then troubleshoot. Make sure that the entries in grub.conf are indicating the proper locations to boot from. I have installed RH9 on a hd where the first partition is XP without any problems.

Take that back...following the next link you should be able to install linux and then windows:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+Win9...roc.html#AEN43

I bet that this works fine with XP too.

Or here...four systems

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Multiboot-with-GRUB-2.html

Or just look around in the grub manual

http://www.gnu.org/manual/grub/html_mono/grub.html

It talks about using grub to trick windows into thinking it is on the first disk. Look around in Booting.

Finally, once you get into linux you can just type grub at the command line and that will allow you to type in new entries for grub. Look at the manual and you will understand exactly what you should try.

Finally, its not hard you just have to read a bit.

thanks a lot! wow i'm impressed by the feedback i get
this is cool!

well, anyways, my setup is a master/slave configuration...
was on a HPT raid controller (was in RAID 0) but i figured linux would have trouble with that. the first install screwed up my partitions on RAID 0! lol
but it's ok

i'm gonna read and try to install now!

I have XP on my first drive....and RH9 on a second drive. The only way I could get it to work properly is put XP on the A drive and Linux on the B drive...the put the boot control on Linux...Lilo works fine.. had a problem with GRUB stalling. All GRUB would do is just show GRUB. When I reloaded the next time I did as above and lilo lets me pick either Linux or Dos to load..

yeah, i have the hard drives set up as master (winxp) and second with Lin9.0. I have tried this {GRUB: map (hd0) (hd1) }
{GRUB: map (hd1) (hd0) } and nothing works. I get the error error 13: Rootnoverify (hd0,0)
Chain loader +1 I have a ton of my digital photography work on the first drive and WinXp. any other ideas?




:
:scratch

LNoobie2827

I wont guarantee but take a look here:

http://www.gnu.org/manual/grub/html_...#DOS%2fWindows

I dont know specifically how your system is set up so Im not sure, but take a look around the grub manual. The above link tells you in some detail about dealing with windows in grub. Remember you can either use the command grub to edit what is in grub.conf (this has its advantages since you can hit tab to have stuff filled in for you or available options listed as you type) or you can open grub.conf with a text editor and do it yourself.

To be honest I dont think you have to use map in order to access windows since it is on the first hardrive. Rather as the error message says you should try to use rootnoverify (hd0,0), which indicates that the system is to boot from the first partition of the first hardrive.

so you want

title DOS
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive

in your grub.conf file somewhere you can enter it using grub or using a text editor like i said.

good luck!

You didn't have to reinstall them, the bootloader was just not there. If you put in the cd or a boot floppy to get to linux it was still there then you could of went to the bootloader config then fix everything.

Here is my /boot/grub/menu.list file for some help.

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Fri Sep 5 13:13:37 2003


gfxmenu (hd1,2)/boot/message
color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8

title Windows 2000
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Linux
kernel (hd1,2)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb3 hdc=ide-scsi vga=791
initrd (hd1,2)/boot/initrd

title failsafe
kernel (hd1,2)/boot/vmlinuz.shipped root=/dev/hdb3 ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off vga=normal nosmp maxcpus=0 disableapic 3
initrd (hd1,2)/boot/initrd.shipped

title floppy
root (fd0)
chainloader +1

Thanks Kroenecker,
I will try that, Im leaving for the movies, but when I get back I check it out. I have tried to edit the command lines in grub, but with no avail. I havent tried the commands you posted so hopefully it will work. I will keep u all posted.



LN26

Hey guys,
Am I screwed if I installed Grub to the MBR, instead of the first sector if I wish to recover my files on my first hard drive? Ive tried all your suggestions, and I cannot get them to work. It just keeps saying that there is a hard drive there, but it cannot read it, or there is no parition on it.


LinuxNOOB2676