I would like to thank everyone who helped me on this problem. I have succeeded
in setting up both Linux and Win2K on my hard drive without losing any settings
or files. Here is how I did it, in case anyone is interested. I have a few
questions at the end of the description if anyone can help me (please). Sorry
about the length of this mail.
PartitionMagic 4 (PM) allows you to make a boot disc when run in WinDOS. I
booted my machine with this disc in fd0 (my floppy drive). I had set up the
12Gb drive as master and the 850Mb as secondary master, so until I had fixed
everything up I would not be able to load Linux. In PM I created a 133Mb Linux
Swap partition at the beginning of the drive. Unfortunately this is the maximum
swap size that PM allows (since in the past this was the largest swap Linux
could access), but it is ample for me. I then used PM to copy my ext2fs
partition from the 850Mb to be hda2 on the 12Gb. I resized this partition to
around 3Gb, and then created one FAT32 partition with the rest of the drive
(about 8Gb). PM warned me that this was past 1024 cylinders and that it may not
be bootable (depending on the OS), but I did it anyway.
After checking my partitions for errors once more with PM I rebooted my machine
with my Mandrake 7.0 CD (this is the latest I have on CD, although my system is
mostly 7.1) in my CD-ROM drive. The Mandrake installation began, and I told it
I was upgrading. I did not install any packages or change any settings; all I
did was to tell it which drives I wanted mounted. The installer updated my
fstab file to reflect the changes and installed LILO.
The installer rebooted my machine when it was done (after I had removed the
CD), and I was able to load in to Linux just like before. I quickly looked
around my files and settings and saw that they were still there. I examined my
fstab file and saw what the Mandrake installer had done to it.
I then rebooted again with my Windows 2000 CD in my CD drive. The installer
took about an hour loading every driver imaginable onto my system (including
the Toshiba Libretto!) and then refused to continue with the installation,
telling me that I had to update my BIOS! Back in Linux, I got a BIOS update
from my motherboard manufacturer. The problem was that it was written for DOS!
Fortunately I had a Win98 startup disc lying around, and I used that to install
the BIOS update.
I again rebooted to install Win2K. After another agonising hour of loading
driver after driver onto my system the installer threw up an interface highly
reminiscent of the DOS 6 installer. Eventually I got something more graphical,
and about two hours later I had Windows 2000 installed.
I remember as a (real) newbie (about six months ago) installing Mandrake 7.0
for the first time. The whole thing took about 30 minutes. The Win2K
installation took me 3 hours, and that doesn't count the first attempt and the
time I spent to get the BIOS update! In Windows Explorer, I found that it had
installed almost 1Gb of stuff, and I had no choice during the installation of
what to install. My Linux installation was about 500Mb, and that included
almost every programme I could want!
Now to set up dual-booting. Loading Linux with a boot disc (Win2K had naturally
overwritten my MBR), I read the man and info files for GNU GRUB. They were a
bit overwhelming at first, but I soon worked them out and set up a dual-boot
system. A reboot verified this: I now have a nice little GUI to choose which OS
I want at bootup.
Well, that's it. But I still have a few problems that I need to fix. I appear
to have only read-only access to my new Windows FAT32 drive from my user (I
have read-write access as root). I would ideally like to be able to have
read-write access with both root and my user, but for security reasons deny all
access to other users. If this is too difficult I can make do with read-write
access for all users. My fstab entry for this partition looks like this:
/dev/hda3 /mnt/win vfat user,auto,exec,unhide,rw 0 0
Another thing I would like to ask regards filesystems. I don't really like the
FAT32 filesystem (large clusters, fragmentation, etc.). Is it possible to use
another filesystem like NTFS or HPFS for Windows 2000 and still have full
access from Linux? I believe that PartitionMagic 4 can convert FAT32 to NTFS,
but I don't mind if I have to reinstall Win2K. Which would be the best
filesystem to use?
I probably have other questions to ask, but I can't quite remember them now and
I think these are enough for the moment.
Thanks a lot.
On Fri, 28 Jul 2000, Gilbert Baron wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Sridhar Dhanapalan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > Sent: Monday, July 24, 2000 8:26 AM
> > To: Charles A Edwards; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: Re: [newbie] Creating a dual boot Linux/Win2k
> >
> >
> > I have installed Mandrake 7.0 but I have upgraded much of it with Mandrake
> > 7.1 RPMs and I have Helix GNOME (from the Helix website, not
> > Mandrake). The
> > problem is that I have customised my system to a degree that makes a fresh
> > installation of Mandrake unthinkable, as I will have to download
> > (with a 56K
> > modem) and reinstall all the updates I have now and I will have
> > to put all my
> > programme settings back in. Unfortunately, I do not have an
> > external backup
> > solution like a Zip drive or CD-R.
> >
> > Before I continue, I have a few more questions. Does Win2K
> > support booting from
> > over 1024 cylinders? I believe that my version of LILO (21.4-3)
> > allows this for
> > Linux, and I also have GRUB. Does Win2K support booting from
> > FAT32? I have read
> > that NT4 can't, and I was wondering if this is the case with Win2K.
> >
>
> I have WIN2k on my D drive which is 14 gigs and start after the 5 gig c
> drive. It works fine. I used to have the c drive as 9 gigs (more than 1024
> cylinders) and that worked fine too.
> They are both Fat32 so that also works fine. In fact WIN2000 works so well I
> may just forget about Linux altogether specially since they regressed the
> install code and I cannot even install version 7.1 although 7.0 installs
> fine.
>
>
> > I was thinking that maybe I could move the Linux partition over with
> > PartitionMagic 4 to the 12Gb HDD (installed as hda with the 850Mb
> > as hdb) and
> > then do one of two things. I could load Linux from a boot disc and edit
> > /etc/fstab to reflect the change. Or I could re-run the Mandrake
> > install from
> > the CD and let it fix the fstab file automatically without
> > installing anything.
> > I have managed to fix things in the past in this way, and I have
> > been able to
> > keep my old settings.
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 24 Jul 2000, Charles A Edwards wrote:
> > > Sridhar
> > > What version Mandrake are you running?
> > > Do you have a Zip drive or any other means of backing up your current
> > > Linux data? I do not mean the full 850MB but just your data.
> > > I think you would be much better off if you could do a full
> > install of
> > > Mandrake using at least 3 pratitions. In 7.1 this requires
> > 1.3GB which is
> > > approx. the same as a full install of Win2000 Profess. With a
> > 12GB drive you
> > > would have enough space to do both as well as grow.
> > > Let me know how you wish to proceed and we will go from there.
> > >
> > > Charles
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Sridhar Dhanapalan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2000 2:09 AM
> > > Subject: [newbie] Creating a dual boot Linux/Win2k
> > >
> > >
> > > > A few months ago, my 12Gb Quantum IDE HDD broke down (bad
> > sectors). While
> > > it was
> > > > being repaired by Quantum my computer dealer lent me an 850Mb one so I
> > > could
> > > > continue my work (though I had to really fight to keep the drive from
> > > filling
> > > > up totally). Now that my old HDD has been replaced by Quantum
> > I have to
> > > swap
> > > > the 850Mb loaned drive for my 12Gb.
> > > >
> > > > So here is my problem. The 850Mb drive has 2 partitions: hda1
> > for / and
> > > hda2
> > > > for swap. I need to transfer all my Linux data from one drive
> > to another
> > > > without losing anything. My dealer has allowed me to keep the 850Mb
> > > > alongside the 12Gb until I have everything sorted out. To add further
> > > > complexity, I want to intstall Windows 2000 (just to try it
> > out :-) on the
> > > same
> > > > drive and be able to choose what OS I want at bootup. So I need 3
> > > partitions
> > > > (Does Win2K need a swap partition? I don't think so.): one for Win2K
> > > (FAT32 so
> > > > I can use it in Linux too) of about 8Gb (will clusters still be 4Kb at
> > > this
> > > > size), one for /, and one for Linux swap.
> > > >
> > > > How should the drives be installed (which should be hda and
> > which should
> > > be
> > > > hdb?)? How big should the swap be? I have 192Mb of RAM but I
> > only rarely
> > > use
> > > > over 20Mb of swap. What would be the best ordering of partitions for
> > > maximum
> > > > Linux performance (Win2K performance is secondary)? How do I
> > edit my fstab
> > > file
> > > > afterwards if I can't boot Linux since the partitions have changed?
> > > >
> > > > What is the best way of going about all this? At my disposal I have
> > > > PartitionMagic 4 (which unfortunately cannot make Linux swap
> > partitions of
> > > > over 133Mb) and Ghost (My dealer has it -- I'm not sure which
> > version). I
> > > also
> > > > of course have the Mandrake partitioning tools.
> > > >
> > > > I'm not sure if I'm making myself clear here. I can clarify things if
> > > anyone
> > > > asks.
--
_____________________________________________________________________
Sridhar Dhanapalan
Linux is like a wigwam...No windows, no gates.
Apache inside.
_____________________________________________________________________
