On Mon, 09 Feb 2004 13:06:38 -0700, Paul E Condon wrote: > I want to dual boot an i686 machine with Debian Sarge and Windoze. My > situation is somewhat special, so the directions that I find when I > google the topic do not really apply IMHO. > > The i686 computer already has Sarge installed on a 60G HD, and Windoze > XP installed on a 30G HD that is sitting inside the case. But the > Windoze HD is currently disconnected from both the ribbon cable and > the power cable. > > I want to add an appropriate stanza to lilo.conf and connect cables to > get dual boot with a minimum of reinstalling. I would like to have the > 60G HD be hda under Linux, and the 30G HD be C: under Windoze. I would > like to use lilo. > > My understanding is that bios boot code on an i686 looks at the MBR of > the master drive on the first IDE channel to find the 2nd stage boot > program, and that lilo overwrites this record. > > If I do the cabling so that Windoze HD is the slave drive, lilo should > not touch the MBR of the Windoze HD. Correct? > > So what do I put in the Windoze stanza of lilo.conf to make boot program > load Windoze? And is there a reasonable hope that Windoze can be made to > think that the slave drive is C:? Or will it do this automatically? > > Or, am I crazy to be contemplating this? > > TIA
You don't say which version of Windows you are using, or whether the Windows drive was the primary drive when Windows was installed. I'm running multi-boot Linux and Windows XP with Windows XP on the first partition in the first slave drive (i.e. what would be /dev/hdb to Linux). When I installed XP, it was on the primary drive; I moved the drive to the slave position and, rather than mess with boot.ini, etc., I simply swapped bios drive numbers in lilo for the Windows boot. If you are using XP or W2K or later, this stanza should work in the situation which you describe: other=/dev/hdb1 label=WinXP table=/dev/hdb master-boot -- ....................paul It is important to realize that any lock can be picked with a big enough hammer. -- Sun System & Network Admin manual -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]