PseudoRandomDragon Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 I recently aquired three programs that I need to work with that only can be used on Win2k. So yeah, I need to install Win2k. The only problem is I have Mandrake already installed. I spent a lot of time getting it the way I want it, so I rather not lose it. Currently, the first hard drive has Win98SE installed and the second one has Mandrake9.2, duel booting with GRUB. I want to format the first hard drive and install Win2k, but I don't know how to reload the booter without reinstalling Mandrake. I also heard that Mandrake does not write to NFTS partitions very well. Is this true? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nichotin Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 Microsoft has done a very good job keeping write support hard to get working in linux. If you want ntfs, google for "captive ntfs", and you will find a project that enables full ntfs support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted March 27, 2004 Veteran Share Posted March 27, 2004 In general, Windows likes to be (and tries to ensure it is) the only OS on your PC. However, I think Win2k is pretty forgiving for the dual-boot (or even multi-boot) situations. Since you are going to replace the Win98 install on hda (correct?), then just install Windows on your first drive, no problem. Your hdb will still have Mandrake on it. You can add a jump to Mandrake in your Win2k boot.ini file. You will have to use a Knoppix CD or something to copy the Mandrake boot info (using the dd command) to your Windows "C:" drive, and add a line to the file that contains your boot data in your boot.ini file. Off the top of my head, I don't know the exact steps, but a quick google will probably turn up good info. Once you can boot into Mandrake with Win2k, you can reinstall GRUB or LILO, if you prefer. :D Looks like your NTFS question is answered. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slimshady89 Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 just remove the second harddrive and install Windows 2000 ... but that wouldnt dual boot ... maybe then like markjensen said u could use Knoppix ? I dont know :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PseudoRandomDragon Posted March 27, 2004 Author Share Posted March 27, 2004 Thanks for the info on NFTS, that should come in handy! I have done a search and found this. Yep, it would appear that I do have to edit the boot.ini file with the proper information, as well as copy a few files. Hopefully, I will get everything done right. I copied the linux.bin file just fine using the command dd if=/dev/hdb1 bs=512 count=1 of=/mnt/floppy/linux.bin Now all I have to do is finish backing up my files, load Win2k and edit boot.ini. Thanks again for the info everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted March 27, 2004 Veteran Share Posted March 27, 2004 Yup. 512 bytes sounds right. Save that floppy file to your Windows drive, and point to it, and you have your Linux booting off of the Windows OS selector. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PseudoRandomDragon Posted March 28, 2004 Author Share Posted March 28, 2004 I carefully backed up all my important data and did a reformat. I even converted the drive to NFTS. Guess what? Grub still remained. I was almost sure that converting the drive and installing Win2k would nuke Grub, but it is still there. Heh. I guess I did all that for basically nothing. All well and good I suppose, better safe than sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted March 28, 2004 Veteran Share Posted March 28, 2004 One thing that Microsoft does pretty well, is to make sure that reformatting and installing is pretty painless. Must be because it has to be done so often... :whistle: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scootersing Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 yeah, as u said mark. Windows has some regularities :laugh: nice to get this info, i was going to ask for it myself. One question is this different if i use "Lilo" instead of "Grub" as a bootloader? By the way Mark, my Linux is working great now (Winex is ordered as well). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongit Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 One question is this different if i use "Lilo" instead of "Grub" as a bootloader? Nope, as long as you install the loader to the partition and not the mbr the process should be the same. However you can load windows through both lilo and grub. I believe that grub will work better, but it is harder to setup correctly. Addtionally I feel that grub is a better bootloader, but it does run into problems if you use certain integrated nvidia cards due to conflict in the low level mem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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