A+ Certification - Re: Dual booting W2K and Linux on TWO HDs

08-06-2003, 11:29 PM

On Wed, 06 Aug 2003 21:46:46 GMT, FineNDandy <>
wrote:

>Hi all. Can anyone tell me or direct me to a web site that explaines
>how to dual boot W2K and Linux? I have TWO hard drives one with Redhat
>Linux 7.2 and the other with Windows 2000Pro. First, I jumpered the
>Linux drive as master, installed it and put GRUB in the boot partition
>of that drive. I made 2000 the slave drive because Linux will see
>Windows but Windows will not see the Linux drive. My other question
>is; Do I have to put GRUB someplace on the W2K drive and if so where?
>Do I have to reconfigure the Linux kernal somehow and what do I put in
>boot.ini of windows? Thanks for any advise.

I am making a few assumptions here, based on your post. I have never
been faced with this exact situation, and my suggestions are based on
my own multiple boot setups, which were done in a different way.

The typical way to do this is to install W2k (on whatever partition
you want to, but the boot information is of course on the master),
then install Linux (its boot information is also on the master, but it
can keep the W2k boot information available) and tell it you want to
be able to use W2k when that comes up during the installation.

Since you already started with 2 existing installations...I don't
know, except possibly a third party boot manager will come to grips
with this. The boot sector on the boot drive has to be aware that W2k
is there, I think, and if they are on separate "physical" hard drives,
with separate installations, that isn't going to happen, unless there
is a trick of which I am unaware.

What might work is to make the W2k drive your master, the Linux drive
your slave, then reinstall Linux to its correct drive (no need to
reformat, hopefully), telling it to keep the Windows installation.
This will put Linux boot information on your W2k drive, and allow both
to boot. Back everything up first, if possible.

Someone may have a better suggestion, and be more sure that it will
work. Good luck.

Tom

Tom MacIntyre

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08-06-2003, 11:29 PM	#1
	Re: Dual booting W2K and Linux on TWO HDs On Wed, 06 Aug 2003 21:46:46 GMT, FineNDandy <> wrote: >Hi all. Can anyone tell me or direct me to a web site that explaines >how to dual boot W2K and Linux? I have TWO hard drives one with Redhat >Linux 7.2 and the other with Windows 2000Pro. First, I jumpered the >Linux drive as master, installed it and put GRUB in the boot partition >of that drive. I made 2000 the slave drive because Linux will see >Windows but Windows will not see the Linux drive. My other question >is; Do I have to put GRUB someplace on the W2K drive and if so where? >Do I have to reconfigure the Linux kernal somehow and what do I put in >boot.ini of windows? Thanks for any advise. I am making a few assumptions here, based on your post. I have never been faced with this exact situation, and my suggestions are based on my own multiple boot setups, which were done in a different way. The typical way to do this is to install W2k (on whatever partition you want to, but the boot information is of course on the master), then install Linux (its boot information is also on the master, but it can keep the W2k boot information available) and tell it you want to be able to use W2k when that comes up during the installation. Since you already started with 2 existing installations...I don't know, except possibly a third party boot manager will come to grips with this. The boot sector on the boot drive has to be aware that W2k is there, I think, and if they are on separate "physical" hard drives, with separate installations, that isn't going to happen, unless there is a trick of which I am unaware. What might work is to make the W2k drive your master, the Linux drive your slave, then reinstall Linux to its correct drive (no need to reformat, hopefully), telling it to keep the Windows installation. This will put Linux boot information on your W2k drive, and allow both to boot. Back everything up first, if possible. Someone may have a better suggestion, and be more sure that it will work. Good luck. Tom Tom MacIntyre