Dual booting Linux with WinXP
Hi, I am a complete begginer to Linux. I decided to try it at home. The configurations of my computer before installation was: A 40gig drive partitioned into 2 drives, C(WinME) and D where D has WinXP I installed Linux(Lycoris Desktop/LX) on the C drive.
Hi,
I am a complete begginer to Linux. I decided to try it at home. The configurations of my computer before installation was:
A 40gig drive partitioned into 2 drives, C(WinME) and D where D has WinXP
I installed Linux(Lycoris Desktop/LX) on the C drive. I copied the boot.ini file from the C drive to the D drive (was that required?)
After installing I could no longer get into boot up into WinXP (drive D), although it was changed to drive C after installing Linux (as displayed by Fdisk). The windows installation appeared on the Linux bootup menu, but when I selected it, nothing happened...
What went wrong?
Thanks
I am a complete begginer to Linux. I decided to try it at home. The configurations of my computer before installation was:
A 40gig drive partitioned into 2 drives, C(WinME) and D where D has WinXP
I installed Linux(Lycoris Desktop/LX) on the C drive. I copied the boot.ini file from the C drive to the D drive (was that required?)
After installing I could no longer get into boot up into WinXP (drive D), although it was changed to drive C after installing Linux (as displayed by Fdisk). The windows installation appeared on the Linux bootup menu, but when I selected it, nothing happened...
What went wrong?
Thanks
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Responses to this topic
No need to apologize, I did the same thing when installing a Debian system. Did not realize it until I booted into the system. User danieff?
The easiest solution would be to keep the back-up drive as a third drive in the system, as I described above. If this is not possible...
You can see from the posts, that a lot of folks have different solutions on how to dual boot. There are a lot of options that work. that what is confusing to some.
Re-installing Suse will do the same thing that you have now, unless you choose to install it on the same drive with XP. This is one solution.
You can make a floppy disk with grub on it, so that you can boot Suse when you want it. This way, you can keep XP as the main OS and use the floppy when you want to use suse. When you get comfortable with it, you can install it as your main bootloader, if you wish. But, be aware, floppies can be unreliable. Of course, i do this all the time.
You can buy an external USB enclosure and place the back-up drive in it and just plug the back-up drive into the system when you want to use it in XP and back-up the system. This way you do not have to swap drives or change bios settings to change the first boot device in your system when choosing the OS that you want.
You can add Suse to the XP bootloader (boot.ini), but this is a bit more complicated for a new Linux user. Some will disagree with me on this. There is a post on the forums on this that I can look up for you.
In any case, you can recover XP as your boot loader now. There are two main ways of doing this, either with the rescue feature via the XP install cd, or via a floppy and restoring the MBR. Again, folks here will have a variety of opinions on this, the documented correct method versus what has worked for them.
Decide what you want to do, then we can move to a solution. There are a lot of folks with solutions to this problem that have worked for them.
The easiest solution would be to keep the back-up drive as a third drive in the system, as I described above. If this is not possible...
You can see from the posts, that a lot of folks have different solutions on how to dual boot. There are a lot of options that work. that what is confusing to some.
Re-installing Suse will do the same thing that you have now, unless you choose to install it on the same drive with XP. This is one solution.
You can make a floppy disk with grub on it, so that you can boot Suse when you want it. This way, you can keep XP as the main OS and use the floppy when you want to use suse. When you get comfortable with it, you can install it as your main bootloader, if you wish. But, be aware, floppies can be unreliable. Of course, i do this all the time.
You can buy an external USB enclosure and place the back-up drive in it and just plug the back-up drive into the system when you want to use it in XP and back-up the system. This way you do not have to swap drives or change bios settings to change the first boot device in your system when choosing the OS that you want.
You can add Suse to the XP bootloader (boot.ini), but this is a bit more complicated for a new Linux user. Some will disagree with me on this. There is a post on the forums on this that I can look up for you.
In any case, you can recover XP as your boot loader now. There are two main ways of doing this, either with the rescue feature via the XP install cd, or via a floppy and restoring the MBR. Again, folks here will have a variety of opinions on this, the documented correct method versus what has worked for them.
Decide what you want to do, then we can move to a solution. There are a lot of folks with solutions to this problem that have worked for them.
Hi Danleff,
U r right, there are a lot of solutions out there but if u think your solution will work then I will do what u tell me to fix the problem.
As u mentioned earlier, I have a back-up HDD as a third drive for now but I still like to learn how to solve the problem.
I would not like to install Suse on the drive with XP as I will not have enough space left on my HDD.
I think booting linux from a floppy disk is a good idea (I can backup the floppy contents just incase it gets corrupted).
Just tell me how should I go about doing it from the situation of dual boots that I have right now (previously described and updated in this reply).
At some point I would like to know how to add Suse to XP bootloader but I like to create boot floppies for linux first.
Please help.
Sachin.
U r right, there are a lot of solutions out there but if u think your solution will work then I will do what u tell me to fix the problem.
As u mentioned earlier, I have a back-up HDD as a third drive for now but I still like to learn how to solve the problem.
I would not like to install Suse on the drive with XP as I will not have enough space left on my HDD.
I think booting linux from a floppy disk is a good idea (I can backup the floppy contents just incase it gets corrupted).
Just tell me how should I go about doing it from the situation of dual boots that I have right now (previously described and updated in this reply).
At some point I would like to know how to add Suse to XP bootloader but I like to create boot floppies for linux first.
Please help.
Sachin.
First of all, there's no need to reinstall anything!!
axp, to get your WinXP back you'll probably need to start in
recover mode and run [tt]fixmbr[/tt] (this will repair the master boot record).
Secondly, as danleff already mentioned, there's a way to add Linux to XP's bootloader. Take a look at this thread:
http://www.ntcompatible.com/thread.php?id=24668
axp, to get your WinXP back you'll probably need to start in
recover mode and run [tt]fixmbr[/tt] (this will repair the master boot record).
Secondly, as danleff already mentioned, there's a way to add Linux to XP's bootloader. Take a look at this thread:
http://www.ntcompatible.com/thread.php?id=24668
Oops, I thought that I was clear, going ne step at a time.
If you want to just recover the XP bootloader, you can use the fixmbr option, provided that you have a Windows XP install disk (XP was not pre-installed and you don't have the install cd).
If you do this, essentually you have lost the ability to boot Suse on the slave drive, unless you have the full Suse install disk (cd), or know how to recover Suse otherwise.
You can boot both right now, as long as you don't remove the Suse drive from the system that has grub installed on it.
If you keep both drives in the system for now, you can boot into Suse and work from w/i Suse to effect a solution using the NT (Windows XP) bootloader. I just did this with my backup system. It's easier (I think) than working from within XP to change the attributes of boot.ini. I did it with lilo, but have not researched using grub yet.
Once the XP bootloader (boot.ini) is set, then you can choose/swap your other drives (other than XP)when working in XP. Just don't choose the option for Linux on boot.
Of course, the best option right now is to find a solution you feel comfortable with, which may be to boot Suse using Grub (since it is already there on Suse) via a floppy disk. By using the fixmbr, you allow a boot to XP (via the hard drive) only and can boot Suse at will from the floppy.
If you think XP will be your main OS and feel that you need to swap hard drives (the suse hard drive and the backup drive), then you can start with the fixmbr solution, once you have the Suse grub boot floppy made.
If suse will be your main OS, then you will probably want to have Suse on a hard drive that you will keep in the system all the time, using Grub as the botloader.
Nebulus is right, you do not need to reinstall anything right now, rather decide how you want to boot the system/how you want your hard drives set up. The effect the solution.
Personally, I would look toward a fixed solution, so swaping drives or the bios order of booting is not necessary.
If you want to just recover the XP bootloader, you can use the fixmbr option, provided that you have a Windows XP install disk (XP was not pre-installed and you don't have the install cd).
If you do this, essentually you have lost the ability to boot Suse on the slave drive, unless you have the full Suse install disk (cd), or know how to recover Suse otherwise.
You can boot both right now, as long as you don't remove the Suse drive from the system that has grub installed on it.
If you keep both drives in the system for now, you can boot into Suse and work from w/i Suse to effect a solution using the NT (Windows XP) bootloader. I just did this with my backup system. It's easier (I think) than working from within XP to change the attributes of boot.ini. I did it with lilo, but have not researched using grub yet.
Once the XP bootloader (boot.ini) is set, then you can choose/swap your other drives (other than XP)when working in XP. Just don't choose the option for Linux on boot.
Of course, the best option right now is to find a solution you feel comfortable with, which may be to boot Suse using Grub (since it is already there on Suse) via a floppy disk. By using the fixmbr, you allow a boot to XP (via the hard drive) only and can boot Suse at will from the floppy.
If you think XP will be your main OS and feel that you need to swap hard drives (the suse hard drive and the backup drive), then you can start with the fixmbr solution, once you have the Suse grub boot floppy made.
If suse will be your main OS, then you will probably want to have Suse on a hard drive that you will keep in the system all the time, using Grub as the botloader.
Nebulus is right, you do not need to reinstall anything right now, rather decide how you want to boot the system/how you want your hard drives set up. The effect the solution.
Personally, I would look toward a fixed solution, so swaping drives or the bios order of booting is not necessary.
