I have seen several recommendations here for SUSE 9.1 Personal, and found a very favorable write-up on the internet. Apparently one of the install possibilities is to boot from HDD. Is this done from a dual boot set-up or some other method?

Thanks

Last time I used SusE, your possibilities for install were
- FTP install
- Network install (install files are located on a server on your network)
- CD/DVD

When you say a hard drive install, do you mean copying the install files to your hard drive and then booting those files?

Many thanks for the response. Being a really rank newbie, I'm not quite into the terminology yet, but here is a quote from the review on 9.1 Personal:

"SuSE has several small but very intuitive features that I really liked. First, the boot CD gives you the option to “Boot from Hard Disk", instead of just dumping you at a lilo prompt. This is very nice if, like me, you get annoyed at rebooting and expecting your OS to start loading, only to be stuck at a bootable cd prompt that will not do anything until some sort of manual interaction. Second, the shell integration on the desktop was very well done."

Although I really crashed and burned in my first attempt at Dual Boot, I have not yet put anything but Win ME on that HDD, so I don't have a lot to lose if I crash it again.

Oh yeah, what's a Lilo prompt?

Thanks again.

When you boot the SuSE installation disc, you'll get a boot-up menu that includes various installation options, a rescue option, and the option you pointed out, "Boot from Hard Disk". All that option does is start the computer's normal boot up. For example, you might use it if you had the installation CD in the drive by mistake, but actually just wanted to start the computer normally. That's all it does. It's a nice feature, but nothing fancy.

Lilo is the program that controls the boot process. The Lilo prompt is a command-line interface that Lilo will give you if it isn't set up properly, or if you break out of the boot menu. You don't really want to see the Lilo prompt unless you're a techie trying to install multiple OSs that don't like each other, or something like that.


Hope that helps

Thanks Spudley. Please pardon my being so dense, but does this mean that SuSE will be installed on the HDD, and run from there?

It just means that whatever OS is installed will be booted as normal, as if the CD wasn't there.

(uh, I'm assuming you're still talking about the "Boot from HD" option.... )

So, please once more, this IS NOT a dual boot system which would allow me to choose the OS I want to run at the time, and, I will have to run SuSe from the CD if I don't want to do away with Windows?

SUSE 9.1 Personal, as well as any other SUSE version and flavour come with the bootloader grub and lilo who will allow you to choose your OS on bootup. The function of the installation CD "Boot from HDD" is just a nice feature that allows you to boot an installed system, even if there is something wrong with the bootloader (e.g. after Windows has overwritten the bootloader, which happens every new installation of that OS). It gives you the security not to lose your Linux installation each time you have to re-install Windows.

You will have the option to choose your OS after installation of SUSE, even without booting from CD.

FANTASTIC abisko00!! That's what I want to do. Although my last attempt at dual boot was a disaster, I'm willing to try it again. Windows and all of the software, that I utilize it on this particular machine, only take up about 4 gigs of a 20 gig HDD, so that leaves me plenty of room for the Linux install. THANKS to you and all who responded...

Mike

Be carefull when you need to do a resize of your Windows partition. The SUSE installer can do this after you defragmented your drive, but there is a bug in SuSE 9.1. Read this article to avoid the problem:
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/0...booting91.html

In case you already have free space on your HDD, don't create new partitions for Linux, let the installer do this for you.

Very Good:

This may explain what caused an identical problem when I installed Mandrake 10.1. I wound up having to delete all partitions and data on the HDD using the Mandrake installer, repartition, and reformat, then reinstall Win ME. I'm sorry Linux enthusiasts, but IF the day ever comes when I abandon Windows, it will be a LONG way down the road.

I have printed the data on this error mode, and will take it to the shop when I attempt the next install.

Again, many thanks...

Ok, I'm off and running with the install. I may be headed off into boot sector hell. SuSE didn't ask me if I wanted to do a dual boot, so I hope that's what I will get. If not, lately I have become very proficient at setting partitions and reformatting..

It used to be possible to also load SuSE using Loadlin.
Well, I still use 8.0 and have both SuSE and Win98 on my computer. I changed the config.sys, now I have a menu from Windows, from which I can choose to boot Linux or Windows. It's also possible for me to start Linux after having started Win98.
I don't know whether that would still work from Win.XP.
(Maybe I'll install that some day.........when hell freezes over.....)