Two hard drives!

[foxmuldar]

Hi...newbie here, first where can i get a good copy of FC4? I have two hard drives on my computer, and i want to put FC4 on one and Winxp until i learn Linux on the second drive. Is this possible? i don't want to have to open my case and switch drives to use OS's, can someone help please?

Thanks in advance,
Foxmuldar

[mebrelith]

Easier to let WinXP in the original and install FC4 in the second one.

[brownen]

I would suggest that you download the iso files from mirrors.kernel.org/fedora. You can then use Roxio or some other cd burning tool to create a cds from the iso images. As for the install, Windows doesn't like to be on a second drive so I would suggest the following.

Step 1 - Fedora install:

Keep windows on its own hard-disk and install fedora on the second. You will also want to leave windows as the boot disk. So windows is C:\ and Fedora will be the equivalent of a d:\ drive. When you run fedora install it to /dev/hdb. This will install fedora on the second drive. Now for the important part. After you accept the partition scheme a screen will come up asking about GRUB installation. At the bottom of the screen, check the box for that states something like "bootloader configuration". Sorry I can't remember the exact wording, I'm not at my home machine right now. Anyway, the next screen will ask for the location of where to install GRUB. *IMPORTANT* SELECT /dev/hdb1. This will install GRUB to the MBR of your linux disk not the windows disk. Finish your install and reboot. You will boot into windows after this by the way.

Step 2 - Windows setup

Once in windows, download a program called bootpart. This will allow you to configure the windows bootloader to boot both windows and linux from Windows. Bootpart's help will tell you how to use it but basically, running bootpart without any options will list partitions 0-X and partition 1 will probably be the one that you want (unless you have multiple partitions on your windows drive). So in my case I have two drives, the first for windows ( one partition) and the second drive for linux (multiple partitions) when I run the command


bootpart 1 c:\bootlinux.img "Linux"

I'm set to go. What this does is it copies the bootsector of disk 1 (the boot sector is the first 512 bytes) to a file call c:\bootlinux.img. Then it will append the line

c:\bootlinux.img Linux

to my boot.ini file. When you reboot, windows will boot but it will present you with the option to boot into windows or linux. You can modify c:\boot.ini if you want to tweak this manually.

Now, if you accidentally write GRUB to /dev/hda1 you will need to boot from you windows cd and run recovery console. From the recovery console , run fixmbr to rewrite the mbr on you windows drive.

There are other ways to do the same thing using GRUB as your bootloader and using GRUB to trick windows but I think using the windows bootloader is cleaner. Also, If you decide to try other distros, you can wipe your linux disk as many times as you want and as long as you always write GRUB to /dev/hdb1 you won't have to ever touch windows or worry about screwing up that system.

BTW. If you do install a new distro, depending on how you set it up you may need to run bootpart again. In this case run it without the "Linux" string (e.g. bootpart 1 c:\bootlinux.img). This will rewrite you cL\bootlinux.img file but will not append anything to c:\boot.ini. The reason that I suggest this is because bootpart only appends lines to the c:\boot.ini and you would have to manually delete anything that you didn't want.

Good luck

[shams]

read this link (http://shamsweb.50webs.com) .

[foxmuldar]

Thanks for the info my friend, will this work on Debian 3.1r0a as well?

Thanks,
foxmuldar

[foxmuldar]

Hi there, well i ordered a good copy of FC4 off the net, and i did as you said about installing winxp to the first drive, and FC4 to the second drive. And i downloaded bootpart, but i do not know how to run the command bootpart 1 c:\bootlinux.img "Linux" can you help with this please?

Thanx,
foxmuldar
.

[Firewing1]

Personally I like to have Grub on MBR and link it to boot sector of Win partition, but both methods work ok...
Firewing1

[mha]

Here is how I did it:
I have WinXP running on a hard drive normally.
Opened the box and installed another drive as master and changed WinXP drive to slave. I've put the new drive on IDE1 and WinXP on IDE2.
Booted with installation CD
Made some partitions on the new drive for future use.
Installed FC4 on master drive
Installed grub in master boot record on master drive and off you go.
Grub will automatically find all installed OSes on your system

Sometimes I switch drives physically for the sake of testing to make windows boot directly w/out grub bootloader.

mha

[foxmuldar]

Thanks for the info mha, How do i install Grub? Do i install it when i install FC4?...i'm a newbie!...:-)

foxmuldar,

[mha]

Grub is part of FC4 installation and actually you are asked where to install it. In my case I've use MBR on master drive.

mha

[foxmuldar]

I've already installed FC4, is there a way i can install Grub without having to reinstallFC4?

foxmuldar,

[Firewing1]

in rescue mode, type
grub-install /dev/hda
to install to MBR, or
grub-install /dev/hda1
to boot sector of hda1.
Firewing1

[foxmuldar]

how do i get to rescue mode?

foxmuldar,

[mha]

boot from CD1 and at prompt type 'linux rescue' w/out quotes

mha

[Firewing1]

boot from 1st FC4 install cd and type "linux rescue" at prompt
Firewing1

[foxmuldar]

Thanks for the help guys, i messed with it all night, and finally got it. I reinstalled FC4 and it works fine now! winxp is my master, i want Fc4 to be the master. If i change it to were FC4 will be the master and winxp will be slave, windows will not try to take over at bootup will it?

Thanx,
foxmuldar

[Firewing1]

no, but windows being *retarded* (Sorry windows lovers, that's not a flame...) it won't start sometimes, or the repair CD won't boot if WinXP isn't master. I would just have FC4 slave, but put Grub on Window's MBR.
Firewing1

[foxmuldar]

Not meaning to flame windows lovers either, but that is why i am trying to leave the windows OS, i have had trouble with it since 3.1. I am having trouble getting some programs to install on FC4, like LimeWireLinux, plus i can not upload pictures from my camera. How do i load Nautilus? and i want to make a directory but i don't know how...can you help please? and how do i put Grub on Window's MBR?
(sorry about all the questions, but i do need to know these things...) :(

Thanx in advance my friend...
foxmuldar:

[Firewing1]

No problem -- we're all newbs at one point, until people like us help -- then in turn when you can you help others :) It's a big circle...
MBR is the Master Boot record -- it's where the info to boot up OS's is stored. GRUB is compatible with any Linux OS, and it can ALSO boot Windows. So it's perfect; you get a menu at startup saying
"Linux : [kernel name]
Windows XP"
and you can select.
As for the camera, I have no idea.
Nautilus you can't start; it's a File Browser. Meaning if you click on a folder, you're using nautilus. If you mean "How do you start GUI (Graphics?)" then type
startx
in a terminal.
Firewing1

[foxmuldar]

I quite agree my friend....i know what MBR is, i want to know how to install Grub on winxp.

foxmuldar,

[Firewing1]

Ah, no problem.
1st of all, make sure you have the Install CD #1 of FC4 hand. Pop it in and at the boot prompt, instead of hitting regular <enter> start the install, type this:
linux rescue
then, follow on screen instructions, tell it not mount you home drive.
Now, when you finally get to a prompt, type:
grub-install /dev/hdap/
BTW, to configure Windows, add this to /etc/grub.conf in Linux:
title WinXP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
This is an example if you Win drive is the master, and WinXP is on the 1st partition.... If its not , let me know.
Firewing1
Have fun!