Guest David Orr Posted March 2, 2006 Report Share Posted March 2, 2006 I have a P.C. running Windows XP on a "C" Drive and a "D'" Drive with an old version of Mandrake. Some months ago my Computer crashed and I was unable to restore the dual boot system that had existed originally. What I wish to do now is be able to access my D Drive from WIN XP and install Mandriva LE2005. I understand that WIN XP must have a boot manager file to access my Linux O.S. on "D" drive. Can someone assist me to facilitate a dual boot set up, so I can use Linux O.S. Any assistance would be very much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polemicz Posted March 2, 2006 Report Share Posted March 2, 2006 I'm not clear what you mean by D drive, a Windows term. If by it you mean a Linux partition on your hd it is probably already formatted as a linux partition. You can simply install the new Mandriva there. You may want to break it into more than one partition, say / and /home. When you install your bootlloader just make sure to put it on the mbr. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted March 2, 2006 Report Share Posted March 2, 2006 The boot manager you're probably mentioning is LILO which is Linux supplied with Mandrake/Mandriva as default. This isn't a requisite for Windows, it's just so that you can boot Windows after installing Linux. There is a way to get the Windows boot manager to boot linux, but in reality, it's just easier to use LILO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted March 2, 2006 Report Share Posted March 2, 2006 The lettered drive scheme is a windows thing that does not aid in recognizing what the hardware is actually doing. In linux (and unix in general) the drives are labled by channel position and partition on the device. So, the Primary master ide device is hda. If it is a hard drive and has more than one partition, numbers on the end of the designation refer to specific partitions. For example, hda1, hda2, hda3, etc. are all partitions on the Primary master device. The Primary slave device is hdb; the Secondary master id hdc; and the Secondary slave is hdd. Note that devices can be any ide drive, including cd/dvd devices. If you have sata or raid, the designations are sda, sdb, sdc, etc. lilo or grub work best installed to the master boot record (mbr) of hda. To install any linux, boot with the installation cd and do not install to the hda since windows is no doubt there. I am not sure why you cold not boot into linux. Also, if it is a "d" drive, which means windows can see it, I am cocerned about why windows can see it. Generally, windows does not cooperate with any other opersting system and does not recognize any other formatting other than at and ntfs. Linux recognizes most formats, and can use several. What formatting did you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted March 2, 2006 Report Share Posted March 2, 2006 What Windows calls a C drive is almost certainly hda. A and B drives are usually for floppy drives. A D drive is usually hdc. This is the usual but can sometimes be different. The Linux system is pretty straight forward but NOT the same. Cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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