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Originally posted by acid_kewpie please do not refer to anythign as urgent. it is not our porblem, if you have an urgent problem, you should expect any faster answers etc...
linuxquestions is a voluntary site, and demanding help for a problem you have is not fair on the members who devote their spare time to helping people.
On the last install, did you make a boot disk? If so, can you boot Linux from it?
The Red Hat installation program has problems recognizing NTFS partitions. If you know what you are doing during the set up you can prevent this, but most folks just end up adding them manually to their boot loader.
On this forum's search page, or on www.google.com/linux, type in "Dual boot" and you will have more information than you know what to do with.
Win2k has its own idea about multiboot. M$ recommends installing Win2k last, after you've installed MS DOS, Win 3.11 and Win 95 =) (like someone needs them all at once!).
Win2k places a file called boot.ini in the boot sector on the first partition; it contains the description of all partitions and provides boot options that you see when you turn the comp on. For various reasons M$ didn't think about Linux.
I think I would create a partition for Win2k and install it first. Then I would install Linux in the free space and opt not to create a boot partition but rather boot from floppy. In theory that should leave your NTFS partition intact. BTW don't install Win2k on a FAT, it is seriously not safe.
Have u created a boot disk while installation or after installation?
If u want to multiboot ur system then install microsoft products first and install linux last.
Yes I made a boot disk for linux and I can boot from it
but the Linux boot manager (I use gbak not lilo ) can not find Win2k by it self
About the boot.ini someone told me that I should make a file on linux linke this
dd if=/dev/hda6 of=bootsect.lin bs=512 and to copy this file on win2k and to make it right in the boot.ini
So I did it and when my win starts there are 2 options Lin and Win but when I click on the linux :....there is no one It doesn't want to boot
I had to clear the mbr to be able to start win2000 because I had no other way to boot it
I don not know about aboot diskette for win2000 do you ?
I was suggesting not to create a boot partition at all. When you install Linux there is an option to boot from floppy. I am sure you have to specify this at the time of installation, otherwise it creates LILO or something that will make booting Win2k impossible. In other words, if you want to boot Win2k just turn the comp on; if you want Linux - put the floppy in the boot and power on.
I can't remember having had any problems with bootloaders since RedHat 6.x.
I used Win2000 Server & RedHat 7.1 dualboot with Lilo, and Win XP Professional & RedHat 8.0 with Grub.
Both install without any problems.
Install Windows first, then Linux, and put the bootloader in the MBR of your bootdisk. First your Linux bootloader will come up, and if you choose Windows, the Windows2000/XP bootloader will come up afterwards.
Theoa is right--all three boot loaders (Grub, LILO and NTLDR) can be configured to dual boot without using a boot floppy. Gbak I've never heard of, but it shouldn't be any different.
Okay, Trubi, you are trying to configure boot.ini, but the command you used isn't quite right. My first questions is where is Linux at on your hard drive? You used hda6, which would mean you have several partitions--is this correct? Here is the correct command with a question mark that you need to replace with the correct partition number:
dd if=/dev/hda? of=/bootsect.lin bs=512 count=1
Copy this to your C:\ drive and make sure the reference in boot.ini is pointed at it.
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