I have been experimenting with making linux my desktop, moving over from Windows 2000. I have been playing with RedHat 9.0 and I am quite happy with it, so I've decided to take the plunge.

Because I didn't want to risk losing my Windows set-up, I brought a completely new hard disc and a couple of swappable HD racks. I put my windows 2000 disc in one, and installed Linux on the new disc. So when I want to boot into the different OSes at the moment, I completely swap the hard discs.

Now, of course it would be useful for me to be able to access the Windows HD when I am in Linux. The following question may be paranoid, but I want to be absolutely sure. If I have install both hard discs, with the Linux one as the bootable primary master, is there any risk at all that it will change the Windows HD so that I won't be able to boot directly from it? Second question, I have GRUB on the linux HD - can I configure GRUB so that I can boot into Windows (which is on the second HD) or RH9 (on the first hard disc). Will configuring GRUB like this affect the Windows HD in any way.

Sorry for the newbie/paranoid questions! I managed to erase all of my Windows partition when I first tried to install Linux four years ago, hence my separate HD method of installation.

windows should be in the primary disk in a primary partition. (there is a trick i found in redhat.com that fools windows, and so the windows run from a slave disk)

grub could be easily configured tru buttons other than ENTER in your grub first screen. (or you should try to find grub.conf file i think the name is).

FAT 32 read write safely
NTFS don't write, only read, after you download the ntfs support.

windows is much better off being run on slave, not master. you then just chainload grub to boot windows off of the slave drive no problem. having linux on master means that if you do want to remove it all you need to do is to take out the drive, put windows back on master and it's done. if you have windows on master all the time, then the linux boot sector will be kept on the windows drive, which is not nearly as clean and effective.

Hey--

Sorry guys but what is GRUB? I am sort of a newbie..

Thnx,

Kyle

a boot loader. kyle... try http://google.com/linux

Thanks... Can you take a look at my question thats under the Newbie Section. Maybe you can help me with that.. I am new to this website.

Thnx,

Kyle

i already have... read it.

ok, chris. and then let me ask you sth. I have on master windows xp and on a second hard disk (slave) in a extented partition linux. and I have problem with the GRUB. don't load windows, it says to me about hard disk error on chainloader +1 and the hd0(0,0) or sth. what can I do?

you'd jus use grub to swap the drive ID's in the bios.

title Windows
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1