Al,
It's been some time since I've done this, but I'll tell you what I can
remember. I'm assuming that you have currently no OS on your hard drive, and
that you want to install both Win95 and Linux on the same drive. From the
rest of your message, I also assume that you have partitioned
your HDD accordingly using linux's fdisk, and that you are now ready to
install an OS on your
machine. It is at this point that you should install Windows.
> So, during windowz installation, it will appear the hd is
>unpartitioned and unformated? Then, the "installer" will tell me to
>partition and format the hd?
Yes. You have to boot using Window's boot floppy and use the fdisk in there
to partition the Windows section of your HDD. It won't be able to see the
linux partition at all. After this, you can install Windows.
>I'm
>saving the last 2GB for windowz. Should I have the linux fdisk partition
>that as hda4 in dos format?
No (...see the paragraph above)
> How can I determine if LILO is in the MBR?
At this point, LILO should not have installed itself in the MBR (because the
linux installation hasn't begun yet!). Once Windows is installed, you can
install Linux. Near the end of the linux installation you will be prompted
to install LILO (at least it does in my version of RedHat). You can choose
to put LILO on the HDD's MBR, or on the MBR of a floppy. Your decision at
this point is quite important:
* If you put it in the MBR of the HDD, and some time in the future you
misconfigure LILO's settings, you run the risk of not being able to boot
Windows (or any other OS) at all. I have done this myself!!
* On the other hand, if you put LILO on a floppy you can avoid this risk;
because it can't see the linux partition, Windows will happily boot,
thinking it has the HDD all to itself. If there are any Windows-only users
sharing your machine, this has the added advantage of making things less
complicated for them, especially if they are not very comfortable with
computers in the first place; they too will boot the PC oblivious of the
fact that there is another OS living in the HDD. The problem is that it
makes things more complicated for you because you have to insert the boot
disk every time you want to use Linux.
Just choose what ever you are more comfortable with.
Anthony
