Is it possible to boot/go directly from Mandrake to Windows?
 

I installed Mandrake 3 days ago. It's the first time I"ve used linux and the more I use it the better it gets. I had to get used to all the new programs and functions but now I can see where it is as good or better than Windows in many ways. I'm using Mandrake Powerpack which has thousands of programs I can download. It's like Christmas.

Anyway, I have Mandrake on one hard disk and Windows on the other. When I start up the computer I can choose which one to boot to. Is there a way to boot/go
directly back and forth between Linux/Mandrake and Windows without having to
re-start my computer??????

Thanks, Kymystic

only with VMware which is a little pricy.

Wait, you mean booting between XP and Linux? If so, just restart your session.

No, they're different OS'es.

The only way is to install something like vmware or QEMU (http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/) and install/run one OS in that.

- Peder

or buy a second computer and keyb/mouse/display-switch. it´s the most convinient way (but pricey).

...or...or...or... you can by Microsoft y'know... and...like... hack windows to run linux...
(but that might also be pricy)

- Peder

If you have the linux boot loader controlling both OS's, which is how my install went (on one HDD with two partitions), then I do this:
--log out of Linux. After logout you get the option to reboot--pick windows. This is quicker than shutting the machine all the way down, though sometimes Mandrake makes me select the reboot option twice before it will do it.
--when in Windows, choose hibernate rather than log out and shutdown. This lets you get back to Windows very quickly. It's still necessary to go through the whole Linux reboot process however. It would be nice to have a comparable hibernate option for Mandrake (basically, Windows writes everything in RAM to the HD and just loads it back into RAM when you return, so rebooting Windows is not necessary).

It depenmds on a couple things, like what exactly do you want.

Something like alt tab linux then alt tab windows you cant to.

Having a boot loader to choose windows or linux you can do but you need to set it up but using either the linux boot loader to load windows or the windows loader for linux.

There is another alternitive, thats Virtual PC for windows that will allow you to install and run linux from with in windows its self, its great for learning about the OS before totaly committing to it.

You can ever have Virtual PC mount and boot a phisical hard drive but you have to be carefull cause you can make unwanted changes to a live OS.

This "problem" will become moot in a few months time! You will hardly ever want to use Windows! I've got to the point where I only use Windows to run MS Access (and that's only until I get to grips with the OpenOffice database) and AutoCAD.

Note that the "hassle" of rebooting helps you to familiarise yourself more with Linux, to avoid having to reboot.