Dual Booting Linux and XP

[Paul Crossman]

I've read your problems with this...  before reading on... would it be
possible to borrow a floppy device from someone that would make life
better for you?

I haven't seen anyone pose this solution on this yet, so I'll put it out
there.

>From the following How-To:  Please keep in mind that the Windows XP boot
loader is almost the same as the Windows NT boot loader.

http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/Linux+NT-Loader.html

Keep in mind, that this is for LILO, make the appropriate changes for
GRUB.

Under Linux
==============

Boot the Linux install with the rescue CD.

Now you have to peel the bootsector from your Linux-root-Partition. With
/dev/hda2 as your linux-partition, the dd-command is:

# dd if=/dev/hda2 of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

There is something wrong if your bootsect.lnx has more than 512 bytes.

Now copy the file bootsect.lnx to a location where you can get it within
windows xp.


Under Windows
===============

Copy the file from the saved location to C:\\bootsect.lnx. 

What lilo.conf is for linux is c:\\boot.ini for Windows NT. Remove the,
system- and the read-only-attribute before you can modify it with:

C:\attrib -s -r c:\boot.ini 

Now change the file boot.ini with an editor, notepad for example, as
follows:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation ... 
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation ...
C:\BOOTSECT.LNX="Linux"

Only the last line has been added in this example. Restore the
attributes after you have saved boot.ini with:

C:\attrib +s +r c:\boot.ini 

After a shutdown of your Windows NT and a restart your should see the
following:

  OS Loader V4.00
 
  Please select the operating system to start:

  Windows NT Workstation Version 4.0
  Windows NT Workstation Version 4.0 [VGA mode]
  Linux

Select Linux and see

  LILO loading zImage ....