Dual Booting from 2 different hdd's

[VenGeanCe]

well as the topic name goes is there a way 2 do this?well i read somewhere that we can do this.i wanna have a dual boot of Xp pro w/sp2 and Linux:ubuntu.cud ne1 guide me on this

i got both SATA Hdd's
1's a 80gig and other's a 120gig

[waheed]

Yes. When you first switch your PC on, press F2 (I think), this should give you an option of which hard drive to boot from, provided you have OS installed on both drives.

[thevoelk]

Make sure XP is installed on one drive, then boot to the Linux setup CD. Tell it to install on the opposite drive from Windows, and it should be able to walk you through using a dual-boot configuration. I know Fedora uses this method.

[Abbadon]

There was a product called Boot Magic that let me do this all the time, but I don't know if the software supports NTFS file system.

Anyway, linux allows you to install a a Boot Managar called Lilo, which is a little old, I can't remember the name of the newest one used in the latest distros.

Also, check a product called System Commander.

Buena suerte chico.

[HARRYSPADGE]

Take a look at this boot manager.

I use it quite a lot to boot to several instances of different OS's on several different drives and I find it very useful because it can be run from a floppy disk at boot up.

http://www.boot-us.com/

[VenGeanCe]

heh voelkand others but is it necessary that linux shud be the main install on ne drive?btw i tried that out sometimes ubuntu boots fine but when i boot thru XP it gives me sort of missing ntldr.don't u think we shud just modify the boot.ini and include some line of linux boot there?

[thevoelk]

I don't think you can modify the boot.ini to point to a Linux distro, I think it's only for other versions of Windows. Windows desktop OSes don't recognize Ext2/3 partitions (server can if it's Posix compliant). I think through Disk Management it will show the proper partition type, but you still can't access it other than to delete the Ext2/3 partition and create a FAT32/NTFS partition. Fedora's Linux uses the Grub command and sees the MS OS as another option to boot from. The setup for Linux should recognize the other OS and assist you with configuring a dual boot.

When you ask if Linux is going to be the main install on the drive, do you mean that you're installing 2 OSes on the same physical drive? I wouldn't reommend that that, the Linux disk setup is complicated as hell (there is an auto option which works very well), you may risk damaging the XP installation if you're not careful. And Windows Setup will probably bitch if the disk is partitioned with a Linux partition in front. Also, I believe Microsoft intends with NTFS formatted partitions to put the Master File Table in one of the first 80 physcial sectors of the disk (63 I think). It will also put a copy in the middle of the drive for backup. I'd locate a second drive to do this on, it will be alot easier on you both in setup and troubleshooting.