[luau] Dual Booting with WinXP Pro

W. Wayne Liauh LiauhW001 at Hawaii.rr.com
Thu Nov 7 23:32:00 PST 2002


Eric Hattemer wrote:

3.  I'm not sure I agree with you here... See, first, a lot of the time 
you don't need extended partitions. I try to avoid them at all costs.

2.  As far as overwriting the MBR goes, what you can do is put LILO onto 
the the linux/boot partition instead of the MBR. This sets the MBR to 
chain load lilo. Then when XP writes over the MBR, it doesn't write over 
lilo. All you need to do now is go into NT fdisk (control 
pannel/administrative tools/computer management), and set the linux/boot 
partition as the only active partition. This will restore the situation 
with no need for a boot disk.

>1. But yes, probably the best method would be to think long and hard about how you want the partitions to be.  Then, even though the NT and linux partitioning programs have similar functionallity, I prefer to use the linux one.  So boot a linux CD, run fdisk, set up the partitions the way you like them.  Save that and reboot with the win CD.  You probably will want at this point to remove and put back the windows partition just so that windows formats it properly.  Windows NT+ does not need to be installed to the first partition.  Then once that's finished and happy, install the linux to the leftover partitions.  
>
>-Eric Hattemer
>
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>  
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Looks like I am picking on you again Eric.  (Since you indicated you 
don't mind, I will not forbear until you protest.)

1.  What you're saying is, I should install NT/2k/XP "before" Linux. 
 Doesn't everyone know that already?  My question is, how can I install 
XP "after" Linux?  I have installed Win98 after Linux.  But that was 
with LILO.  How do I do that with GRUB?

2.  With GRUB, you can install it directly into MBR.  The method you 
described is for LILO.

3.  "[A] lot of the time you don't need extended partitions. I try to 
avoid them at all costs."

You're not serious, are you?  :-)  Even with a workstation/desktop, I 
always keep at least a separate /home partition in extended partition. 
 Since I have to run Win4Lin, I am also keeping /var and /opt in 
separate partitions.  (The main reason you keep separate partitions is 
that, when you re-install a new distro, you don't have to re-format them.)




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