[CA LUG] Dual booting

[Russ]

Thanks VERY much,

I do have another dual boot system that is entirely FAT32 (4 partitions)
using cfdisk.  I thought I had heard,read or inferred from the immense 
list of file systems that Slackware/cfdisk gave me to format the
partiton as, that the Linux partition could be NTFS as well.
I used LILO on my first Dual boot, and that was fairly easy to accomplish.
Not simple, but I made it happen. 

I do plan to make Linux the primary boot sector on the new system, but I
wanted to install Windoze Server 2003 on another partition, since I am in
the certification class.  

Thanks again

Russ Main

On Fri, 16 Sep 2005, James Ewing Cottrell 3rd wrote:

> Yes. You need NTFS for that. But if you want to transfer files between 
> Windoze and Linux, you will probably want a FAT32 partition as well.
> 
> The easiest way to do dual boot systems is to go buy Partition Magic, 
> which also contains Boot Magic. You can use Windoze to dual boot, but 
> you have to import the Linux boot block into Windoze, and edit the 
> boot.ini file. I don't like doing this.
> 
> You can also use Linux to boot Windoze via either LILO or GRUB. The 
> problem here is that unless/until you become a LILO/GRUB expert, you 
> risk being unable to boot anything.
> 
> I use PM, which owns the MBR, and install the LILO/GRUB boot block in 
> the target partitions. Rather foolproof.
> 
> Ultimately, what you want is something like: P1=FAT32, P2=NTFS, P3=EXT, 
> P4=UNUSED, L5=SWAP, L6=Linux
> 
> You can use one of the following methods:
> 
> [1] Install Windoze however it likes, perhaps even eating the whole 
> disk. Install PM and use it to shrink and move it, creating space for 
> the P1 and P3 partitions. Actually, P1 and P2 will be reversed and out 
> of sequence if you do it this way, but that's OK. Now create the FAT32 
> partition, either via Windoze itself or PM. Format and load Boot Magic.
> 
> IMPORTANT: Make sure that you edit the "visible partitions" and check 
> that the FAT32 partition is available to Windoze, or you can't boot!
> 
> Now load Linux into the rest of the disk. You will have to go back into 
> Windows and make an entry in Boot Magic for Windows too.
> 
> [2] Use Linux to partition the disks the way you like, but don't load 
> Linux just yet. Make the P2=NTFS partition active. Hopefully, Windoze 
> will choose to load itself there. If you do this, you will be able to 
> collapse a few of the steps listed above, and your partitions will be in 
> order, and you will avoid the shrink/move step.
> 
> [3] A third way to do it is to use a small "rescue linux" partition to 
> boot and/or fix any problems you might have. The layout is thus:
> 
> P1=Linux, P2=FAT32, P3=NTFS, P4=EXT, L5=SWAP, L6=L7=L8=L9=LINUX.
> 
> You can load and play with many linux systems this way.
> 
> The steps here are: partition via Linux, load Windoze into P3, load 
> Rescue Linux into P1, make P1 active, add a Windoze entry to the rescue 
> LILO/GRUB. Now install your other Linuxi, writing the "boot sector" into 
> their own partition, and make an entry in the Rescue Linux LILO/GRUB.
> 
> HAVE FUN!
> 
> JIM
> 
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I'm realtively new to linux.  I've been to some of your meetings and I'd
> > like to thank Dave Cafaro as well for his time and help.
> > 
> > I have a question about dual booting.  I dont really understand FAT/NTFS
> > systems other than the basics.  However, I installed RH9 on a 333MHZ
> > machine with 256 MEG RAM.  I set it to FAT32 because I was going to
> > reinstall W98.  Well, I'm taking a Win 2003 Server class and I tried to
> > install that on a partition on the same machine.  It went fine obviously
> > until I went to install Active Directory.  You need NTFS.  I was wondering
> > if you can set a machine from FAT32 to NTFS or is this only done when
> > formatted.  I have not installed any files on the system other than the
> > two operating systems.  I plan to reformat and install both again this
> > weekend unless someone has some acvice or suggestions.
> > 
> > 
> > Russ Main
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Lug mailing list
> > Lug at calug.com
> > http://calug.com/mailman/listinfo/lug
> > 
> 

Sincerely,

Russ Main