ahmad Posted May 22, 2006 Report Share Posted May 22, 2006 hi... i have Mandriva installed on a harddrive that contains 2 partn and Windows XP on hard drive contains 3 prartns .. now i connect both harddisks to my computer... 1st (mandriva) as Slave.. ant the 2nd (XP) as master... .. the thing is .. it always boot using XP .. and never allow me to choes linux... and even after booting on XP .. i can't see the other harddrive via XP...! is ir possible to pick wich one to use during startup? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted May 22, 2006 Report Share Posted May 22, 2006 Very simple answer: You need to reinstall the Linux-bootloader on the Masterbootrecord (MBR) of your Windows harddrive. The only other way is to use a boot-up selection from the BIOS (e.g. on my main box, I hit F8 for defining the bootup device). For reinstalling the bootloader on MBR of hda, boot up the first Mandriva CD, press F1 for advanced options. Select "reinstall Bootloader". Once it is finished, reboot. You should have now a dual-boot system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahmad Posted May 23, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2006 Thanks... But to install a new bootloader @ windows partn... is it safe? it will not harm my windows in anyway.. right? and is it normal that Windows can't access any partn @ Linux harddisk? thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted May 23, 2006 Report Share Posted May 23, 2006 It should if set up OK allow you to boot Windows and Linux, it will just replace the MBR with a menu allowing you to choose what to boot. If you find that you can't boot Windows after doing this, it means LILO doesn't have the configuration, but is easy to add, just post back if you find Windows isn't on the boot menu. And yes, it's normal that Windows can't access Linux partitions. Windows only supports FAT32 and NTFS natively, and therefore to read Linux partitions you would probably need third-party utilities to do this within Windows and would have to purchase something if it existed. I'm not sure, but there might be something available. The only way to share between Linux/Windows is to have a FAT32 partition, as Linux can write to this. NTFS can only be read in Linux, so is one way sharing from Windows to Linux. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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