Guest pirx11 Posted April 28, 2005 Report Share Posted April 28, 2005 Is it possible to use Windows XP bootloader to load Mandrake Linux? Here's what I want to do: I have a system with 2 HDs. Master HD has Win XP (Media Center Edition). I used Partition Magic to create Linux partition and Linux Swap partition on a slave drive. The second half of my slave HD has NTFS data partition. I know it is possible to skip installing LILO/GRUB while installing MLinux 10.1 on my linux partitions, but how do I make it boot using XP bootloader? I want to avoid installing GRUB/LILO because I want to use Norton GoBack to monitor my Windows installation. GoBack enabled prevents booting into XP if LILO or GRUB are present. I had to reload XP because of this issue. If it is possible to use windows bootloader to boot up Mandrake what entry should I add to my current boot.ini file? Here what it is now" [boot loader] timeout=3 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect Is 10.1 the latest release? What is Mandriva Linux LE2005? Thanks for any input on this. Pirx11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted April 28, 2005 Report Share Posted April 28, 2005 I wouldn't use the xp boot loader even if it would work, which I doubt that it does. Windows pretends to be the only os. Personally, I would scrap GoBack. I have been dual booting with lilo for years. Even with extra software, you will end up reinstalling windows over and over again. Not so with linux. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonEberger Posted April 28, 2005 Report Share Posted April 28, 2005 i've tried it and it never worked well for me. i know one guy who makes it work. but it's so much easier with lilo or grub (i'm a lilo fan). install xp first and then mda then it works great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pirx11 Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 Thanks for the input but I will have to experiment with NTBootloader sometime later on. The reason I want to keep "GoBack" is that I keep experimenting with new software and sometimes it makes the system so unstable that there is no other way but to re-ghost HD or use GoBack (which is way faster and works really good). I've got the second box that runs Linux but it is Pentium MMX running at 200MHz and it is too limited for some of my requirements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted April 29, 2005 Report Share Posted April 29, 2005 All right, here is another idea for you. In linux, you can totally image your entire system, all partitions. So use the back up in linux and when you play with windows, you can simply reload it from linux. It works much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave843 Posted April 30, 2005 Report Share Posted April 30, 2005 I know it is possible to skip installing LILO/GRUB while installing MLinux 10.1 on my linux partitions, but how do I make it boot using XP bootloader? I want to avoid installing GRUB/LILO ... I don't think you can do this without installing Lilo/Grub. But you can do it without installing them in the MBR (which could be the problem GoBack had). The basic idea is to install Lilo on the first partition of your Linux install (NOT the MBR). Then make a boot floppy, and copy a file to the windows partition. You can then add an entry to the Windows boot loader which will call Lilo, and boot Linux like normal. I haven't tried this, but it here are some links: LinuxSolved (looks kind of old) NT OS Loader FedoraForum -- not the first post. Read about halfway down Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pirx11 Posted May 8, 2005 Report Share Posted May 8, 2005 I bit the bullet and installed LILO on MBR letting LILO act as a bootloader. I had absolutely no problems with the installation and everything works well. I also had to uninstall GoBack. I will eventually have to reinstall my OSes and then I will definitely try to play with it more. I will post my findings if I am successful in getting NT bootloader to work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theo Posted May 8, 2005 Report Share Posted May 8, 2005 (edited) You can use Norton Ghost without GoBack! By this way, you don't have to change your habits! (GoBack is not necessary ;) ) But all is possible (and much more still ;) ) ... with a geek spirit ;) Cheers. Edited May 8, 2005 by theo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolf Posted May 8, 2005 Report Share Posted May 8, 2005 There are howtos posted on the web for using the nt bootloader. Some might have already been linked in a previous post to this thread. I have used the nt bootloader in XP following along the lines of this one: http://www.plugnpray.co.uk/linux/lilo-nt/1.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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