Jump to content

2 Drives or One Dual Boot? [Solved]


ColinM
 Share

Recommended Posts

Try this on the command line:

find /home/colin/ -name arach*

 

This will return the path to all the files called "arach"-whatever. You decide what the name for the executable is and then type:

 

wine /home/colin/path/to/executable.exe

and the program may or may not start and/or work. I would test it heavily to make sure that it works properly.

 

I haven't had that much luck using Wine for any but the most popular Windows applications.

 

Anyway, as for your original question. Booting from separate hard drives can be done, and it might even be easy. I would install Windows on the first partition on the Master hard disk. Windows gets really testy if you do it any other way. You can then install Mandrake on to the second hard disk using the partitioning options during the Mandrake boot-disk install procedure. It should configure LILO with all the right settings for you.

 

Good luck,

Nate

 

He's right here. In regards to your original question (if you do end up having both OS's), definitely put one on each hard drive. Linux likes to play with the master boot record, and since windows is figety about wanting to be on the primary master, it's boot record also likes to be there. If linux overrwites the MBR, Windows won't want to boot. You'd have to re-write it by booting up with the windows install disk and repairing, then going back into it and adding the linux boot option. Not a hard task, but who wants to go through more work than needed? Installing one on each drive eliminates at least this possible dilemma.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reading your outline Nate, you seem to be saying you would make my old Win HD the Master drive, and have my new HD as the second HD, even though it will be the most used HD.

 

Before I dive in, I'd like the opinions of others, and have a good study of the relevant tutorials, so I at least have a whiff of an idea what I'm doing.

 

I don't even know how to physically hook up a second HD.

 

So first things first:

 

Which is the best plan: 2 HDs or one with dual boot?

 

Next where's the step-by-step guide please.

 

Yeah, just to be safe I would install the Windows hard drive as the Master Drive on its cable. That means that the drive itself will have the pins set to "Master," and that it would be on the end of the IDE cable (not in the middle). The second hard-drive, the one with Linux on it, would be jumpered as the "Slave" drive and be in the middle of the same cable. The other IDE drives on the system (cdroms, cdrws, dvdroms, dvdrws, etc) can go on the other cable however you please. Some people like to have their hard-drives on seperate cables to increase transfer speeds, but I have never noticed any increase in speed from doing this.

 

Anyway, as Devries said above, it should then be easy to reconstruct LILO to take into account for this new configuration by booting from the Mandrake Install CD, hitting F1 at the first chance and typing "rescue." This will allow you to re-install LILO with the new configuration and thus be able to boot to either Windows or Linux.

 

There are a thousand HOWTO's about this out there to look at if you get stuck (plug "Linux dual boot" or something similar into Google). Or you could just re-post here :)

 

P.S. : sorry it took so long to get back, med school started again for the week and I have been busy :)

 

Good Luck,

Nate

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...