dual boot with 2 hard disk

[S.C. Fun]

While most of the case people installed 2 OS into the same single hard disk, with Win2k first, then Linux. Dual boot could be done by simply refering to a file dd from the first 512byte of first partition of Linux in boot.ini.

However, if I have installed Win2k into the first disk (IDE) and Linux 8.) into the second disk (SCSI), how could I dual boot from the NT OS loader?

I've tried modifying boot.ini like:
scsi(0)disk(2)rdisk(0)partition(1)="RH Linux 8.0"
but it didn't work.

FYI, my PC doesn't allow me to choose which device to boot from.

Thanks in advance.

[T G Manikandan]

Probably the lilo is not installed properly in the master boot record.

Make appropriate change in the /etc/lilo.conf


Thanks

[S.C. Fun]

I actually install GRUB OS loader into the MBR of the second hdisk (SCSI). It's able to boot Linux perfectly if I disable the IDE from the BIOS.

[Jochen Heuer]

Hello!

Why don't you install grub bootloader into MBR of first partition? grub can boot win2k just fine with an entry like this:

title Win2K
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

I am booting like this for ages ...

[Jochen Heuer]

Btw. if your afraid of killing your MBR on the IDE disk just save it when booted to Linux:

$ dd if=/dev/hda of=mbr.img bs=512 count=1

Then you can restore it later with

$ dd if=mbr.img of=/dev/hda

[S.C. Fun]

Hi Jochen,
If I were to boot both OS using GRUB, how could I relocate my grub loader to MBR of first IDE drive without reinstalling it?

I have tried
dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
but it didn't work!

Would that means we could not load both OS in 2 hdisk using NT osloader ?

Thanks.

[S.C. Fun]

Hi Jochen,
If I were to boot both OS using GRUB, how could I relocate my grub loader to MBR of first IDE drive without reinstalling it?

I have tried
dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
but it didn't work!

Would that means we could not load both OS in 2 hdisk using NT osloader ?

Thanks.

[S.C. Fun]

Hi Jochen,
If I were to boot both OS using GRUB, how could I relocate my grub loader to MBR of first IDE drive without reinstalling it?

I have tried
dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
but it didn't work!

Would that means we could not load both OS in 2 hdisk using NT osloader ?

Thanks.

[Chakravarthi]

hi,

check the following link

http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-dboot.html?dwzone=linux?e

regards
chakri

[Samuel BURG]

Hi,

I run severals PC, mixing W2K - NT4 - Linux and IDE-SCSI drive.

Usually I use Lilo, but I think It will also work with Grub or others boot loader.

I don't know how you've create you partition, usually I do things like this :

Frist HDD (bootable HDD, usually IDE):
- frist partition: FAT 16, size=10-20 Mo, ONLY for multi-boot
- second partition: NTFS or EXT2, for OS

second HDD (not bootable HDD, usually SCSI):
- NTFS or EXT2 partition, for OS

Then 3th 4th ... HDD for DATAs.

After what I install NT4-W2K whit a NT4-W2K boot loader in the bootable MBR (if destroyed, use the rescue/recovery console from a bootable W2K CD-Rom and the fixboot / fixmbr commands or with the linux command dd if=... of=...).

Then I install a Linux system (for me a Debian 3.0, but it work with other like Suse, Mandrake...) WITHOUT a boot in MBR, but with the boot in root-partition (/).

Then a litle Linux instruction like thoses ones to copy the linux boot sector in a file on the fisrt (bootable) partition :

# mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/dos16
# dd if=/dev/xdxx bs=512 count=1 of=/mnt/dos16/bootsec.lin

where xdxx can be: hda2, sda1 ...


Then under NT4-W2K, here is the point you search:

update boot.ini, adding a line like THIS one :

c:\bootsec.lin="linux"

and NOT like this one :

scsi(0)disk(2)rdisk(0)partition(1)="RH Linux 8.0"

because the linux boot sector MUST be load like if it was a W9x system and NOT a NT-like system, or using a syntax like you say to the NT-W2K boot loader that you want to run Linux as a NT-like system !!!!


You will perhaps encounter other problems:

check if you SCSI card power-on and spin-up your SCSI HDD before the system try to boot on it.
On an Adaptec card it's easy by the integrate bios manager, access by hitting F6 during the card check-up.

If your first (bootable) partition on the fisrt (bootable) HDD is a NTFS one I'm not sure it will so easy, but try it and report me if success or failure. For that point and because all system can access FAT16 I allway use a litle FAT16 partition on my boot-HDD.

Good luck.

Samuel