Questions with dual-boot setup.

[James Wilkinson]

David Le wrote:
> I have 2 separated disks and 1 PC.
> -Disk 1 installed Windows XP originally.
> -Disk 2 installed FC1 by me separately.
> 
> Currently, I have to swap between Disk 1 and Disk 2
> when I boot-up my PC. It is very inconvenient so I
> want to setup dual-boot such that I am able to select
> the OS at the boot-up time and, in the futre, I can
> always switch back to single boot with Windows XP disk
> only.
> I'm not sure if Linux boot loader will change any
> thing on the master boot record of Disk1 (Windows XP)
> such that I cannot boot Disk1 without Disk2 attached?
> I still need Disk 1 for other critical tasks so I'd
> like to leave Disk 1 untouched as much as I can. 

I take it that you've got this working with Disks 1 and 2 installed
separately, and XP works if you've got them both installed?

Five options for you to consider:

 1. mkbootdisk
    Create a boot disk (for FC2 and above, you'll probably have to use
    the --iso option and create a boot CD). Stick that in and you'll
    boot to Linux, leave it out and you'll get Windows XP.

 2. Copy the boot sector of Disk 2 to Disk 1 and use the NT boot loader.
    You'll need something that can be read in either OS: a FAT floppy
    will do. If Disk 2 is /dev/hdc, and grub is installed in the MBR of
    Disk 2, use
    dd if=/dev/hdc of=/mnt/floppy/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1
    (if you've got the floppy mounted on /mnt/floppy). In Windows, copy
    the bootsect.lnx file into C:\, and edit C:\boot.ini (you may need
    to play with Explorer's Tools menu -> Folder Options -> View ->
    "Show hidden files and folders" and "Hide protected operating system
    files" to get this to work). Add the line
    C:\bootsect.lnx="Linux"
    Save, reboot, and you should have a new option in the NT boot
    loader.

 3. Put grub on Disk 1, on the MBR and in a partition on that disk.
    You'd need a partition formatted with something grub can understand
    on Disk 1: FAT or FAT32 will do. The easiest way to get this working
    is during install time: tell Anaconda (the Red Hat and Fedora
    installer) that this partition should be /boot, and it should do
    what you want (put the files necessary for booting XP on that
    partition on Disk 1). You'd have to read up a bit and use
    grub-install to get a similar effect after OS install time.

 4. Put grub on a floppy using grub-install. This should be similar to 1
    in effect, but you'd load less from the floppy. On the flip side,
    this would be harder to get working right.
    
 5. Switch to lilo. This puts all the needed info in the MBR, so you
    don't have to worry about partitions. On the flip side, it's harder
    to set up.

Have fun!

James.
    
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