Re: 1st Partition Linux, 2nd Partition Windows?

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Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 08:26:52 -0400

On Wed, 05 May 2004 23:13:35 +0200, sung <designtists@gmx.at> wrote:

>Hello,
>
>As I said before I'm planing to install Linux. Now I face an interesting
>situation, which is not described in the official documentation I found.
>
>My system is set up as a dual boot system: 1st partition win2k, 2nd
>partition winxp. 1st is systempartition, 2nd is startpartition.

No problem. I have 4 primary partitions in that order: Win98, WinXP,
Linux and swap. The first three are bootables.

>
>What I want to do:
>Deleting the first partition, (which i think not possible, since it is
>also the systempartition and contains necessary files for
>windows-startup, no matter which one) and then installing linux instead.

Yes, but make BACKUPS of your important data first! mistakes do
happen, you know...
>
>Q1: Has anyone experience with an installation like this? (the second
>partition should remain untouched - or more importantly unharmed - by
>the installation).
>Q2: I know it's the wrong place to ask, but maybe someone can tell me if
>it is possible to make the 2nd partition of a harddisk start- as well as
>systempartition for windows (if you feel offended by beeing asked
>windows questions here accept my excuses)?

Yes to all but is is a complicated and delicate process. Only ONE
mistake and POOF!!! Everything's gone!

The very best way to do this is to get a second hard disk! Hey, they
are cheap today and the process is so complicated, ( so many
possibilities of errors ) that it is not worth it. I did it once and
i wont do it again ( took me almost one week to get it right ).

Look below; for the last hour i've tried to explain the process and
yet i realise that the procedure below is (very) incomplete. Do not
read below and DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!

If

Don't read below this line....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is my advice:
First, WinXP needs some files to reside on a FAT (DOS or Win)
partition: ntdetect.com, bootfont.bin, suhdlog.dat, autoexec.bat,
config.sys, msdos.sys, bootsect.dos, io.sys, ntldr and boot.ini.

Notice that my first part. is Win98 so the files autoexec.bat, io.sys,
msdos.sys, config.sys and bootsect.dos may not be present on your
system. As i do not have Win2K, i do not know the exact details.

So, you set-up your preferred Win. to show hidden files and you backup
the files above to a diskette.

Make sure that you have a bootable diskette from DOS 6.22, Win95 or
98.

( incomplete..)

You will need to replace the first partition by three other ones:

 1- a small size FAT 16 DOS partition of say 512k to 1meg. On that
one you will store perhaps DOS 6.22 and a handfull of hard disk
utilities to repair your system if something goes wrong. That
partition should be bootable.

2- Main Linux partition, the biggest one

3- the Linux swap partition. I think it is the same size as the
amount of your RAM but i'm not sure.

the 4th partition will be the already existing WinXP.

You can use the very good "Ranish Partition Manager" to do the job.
It has a function to save and restore the boot sector of the hard disk
and it can fit on one 1.44m disk. Read the documentation CAREFULLY
and practice a little bit with it before installing Linux.

CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION:

The Linux Boot manager will replace the WinXP one without asking but
it will save it on the first (DOS ) partition. On the next boot, GRUB
will offer you the choice of booting Linux or DOS. If you choose DOS,
GRUB will redirect the boot process to the old boot manager ie. WinXP.
Now it is the XP Boot Manager that must give you the choice of booting
on the first (DOS 6.22) or fourth partition. To do that you must
first copy the files from DOS to the first partition THEN edit the
boot.ini file of WinXP to read like this:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
C:\="DOS"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro2"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro3"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro4"
/fastdetect
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
( well, because of word wrapping, the /fastdetect has been shifted on
it's own line; it should not... )

Notice that only one of the WinXP lines will be good but because of
know wich one yet. Most likely it will be the fourth one...

(incomplete...)

>
>Thanks in advance
>sung

Have a nice day!

Benoît...

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