Re-set up dual boot, dual HD system... pls help!!!!!!

[piginspring]

current rig:
********************************
OS: XP Pro + Redhat 7.2
CPU: Athlon 1.2G
MB: Epox 8k7a
MEM: 512M Crucial pc2100
HD1(master): WD 60g 5400rpm w/ XP on it
HD2(slave): Maxtor 20g 7200 w/ redhat
Vid: GF3 Ti200
Lite-on 24x CD-RW, toshiba 16x dvd...
********************************
just got a Dell/WD 120G, 8M cache HD. i'm thinking to set it as master and put xp pro on it, then install redhat on the 60g WD. it also could be a backup drive.

Questions:
1. after i set the 120g HD as master, old 60g as slave, can i install XP directly? (don't wanna reformat the old 60g coz there'r still a lot of stuffs on it.) some guys said the system will crash since there r two bootable active partitions??
2. or can i use Ghost's disk to disk function to copy the whole thing on the 60g WD to the new 120g hd?
3. what's the best partition set up on the 120g hd? sys: 20G, work: 10G, data 90g??
BTW, a werid thing is, occassinally the BIOS won't recognize the 20G Maxtor HD or only recongnize part of it (5.1G)? what's the problem?

any suggestions will be highly appreciated!!!!!Text

 

[cleverhandle]

1 & 2: Do you need to keep your settings from the old drive? If not, you'll have no problem installing XP to the new drive with the old one as a slave. Just boot to the XP CD, and tell it where to put the installation. After installation, the new drive's boot records will be seen by the BIOS before the old one's, so there won't be any issues. If you need to keep your old stuff, you could ghost the old drive to the new one, but it would be just as easy to use the Files and Settings Transfer wizard, and start with a fresh install.

3: Not sure what "work" is for... I would just do 2 partitions to keep it simple. 20/100 or 30/90 depending on how many programs you'll install. Don't believe the hype about the crazy partition schemes out there.

BTW: not sure, but if it's sporadic detection, I'd suspect a bad cable

 

[piginspring]

i'd like to keep the old settings, but seems ghost needs to run from floppy, right? i already get rid of my old floopy drive... and since the new HD is much larger, when i do "disk to disk", can i change the partition size on the new hd?
i believe the cable should be fine. i've changed several cables... and this problem is getting more serious. now most of time only 5.1g can be recognized by Bios... personally i suspect maybe sth wrong with the MB or this old 20g HD is dying...

Originally posted by: cleverhandle
1 & 2: Do you need to keep your settings from the old drive? If not, you'll have no problem installing XP to the new drive with the old one as a slave. Just boot to the XP CD, and tell it where to put the installation. After installation, the new drive's boot records will be seen by the BIOS before the old one's, so there won't be any issues. If you need to keep your old stuff, you could ghost the old drive to the new one, but it would be just as easy to use the Files and Settings Transfer wizard, and start with a fresh install.

3: Not sure what "work" is for... I would just do 2 partitions to keep it simple. 20/100 or 30/90 depending on how many programs you'll install. Don't believe the hype about the crazy partition schemes out there.

BTW: not sure, but if it's sporadic detection, I'd suspect a bad cable

 

[b773]

Did you install RedHat on the 60G and then set it to slave? Because if you set the 120G to master and then install XP, your BIOS will boot from the master first and that'l be XP. The only way to boot RedHat would be to set your BIOS to boot from the slave or use a startup disk you created when installing RedHat.

The way I did it was I had a 40G master and 6.4G slave. I installed XP onto the master first. I then installed RedHat onto the slave. !!!DOING THIS WILL REWRITE THE MBR ON THE MASTER TO BOOT ONLY LINUX!!! In RedHat, I edited the /etc/lilo.conf to point to the XP drive. Then I ran 'lilo' at the command prompt. Doing this gives me an option at boot time to boot either XP or RedHat. It is easier than it sounds.

You can also do this:

Set your 120G as master and 60G as slave. Install RedHat onto the slave and make sure you make a startup disk othewise you won't be able to boot RedHat. After installation, you'll be able to boot RedHat from the MBR of the master. Now go and install XP onto the master. I think it will rewrite the MBR so you'll need the startup disk you created earlier to boot RedHat.

Hope its not too confusing.

 

[piginspring]

i don't worry about dual boot actually.
for redhat7.2, u can choose not write to MBR, so there's no prob to set HD w/ xp pro as master. my old system can successfully dual boot w/o any problem. now my only concern for dual boot is the file systme. maybe i should format the other 2 partitions on the 60g WD to FAT32 so both linux and xp can access/exchange data...
anyway thx a lot for the suggestion...

Originally posted by: b773
Did you install RedHat on the 60G and then set it to slave? Because if you set the 120G to master and then install XP, your BIOS will boot from the master first and that'l be XP. The only way to boot RedHat would be to set your BIOS to boot from the slave or use a startup disk you created when installing RedHat.

The way I did it was I had a 40G master and 6.4G slave. I installed XP onto the master first. I then installed RedHat onto the slave. !!!DOING THIS WILL REWRITE THE MBR ON THE MASTER TO BOOT ONLY LINUX!!! In RedHat, I edited the /etc/lilo.conf to point to the XP drive. Then I ran 'lilo' at the command prompt. Doing this gives me an option at boot time to boot either XP or RedHat. It is easier than it sounds.

You can also do this:

Set your 120G as master and 60G as slave. Install RedHat onto the slave and make sure you make a startup disk othewise you won't be able to boot RedHat. After installation, you'll be able to boot RedHat from the MBR of the master. Now go and install XP onto the master. I think it will rewrite the MBR so you'll need the startup disk you created earlier to boot RedHat.

Hope its not too confusing.

 

[Jojo1971]

i used to do dual boot in the past and everytime i mess up either OS i get a headache....i've also tried OS Commander but still i was having problems.... after asking alot of people in several forums this is what they recommended for me to use------->

here:


and here:


* im running winXP Pro on the first HDD [40 GB(NTFS)-used for general stuff except gaming], Win98se on the second HDD [30 GB(FAT32)-used for gaming] and another WinXP Pro on the third HDD [8 GB (NTFS) for my kids and guests who use my pc to browse the internet].. then (2) 80 GB (FAT 32) in stripe just for STORAGE......those first 2 HDD's can access the "STORAGE HDD's" but the third cant/ is disabled so that my files will be SAFE from other people's manipulation/mistakes...


*ive been using it for the last 5 months, so far im satisfied with it... easy to use and less headache for like me..

*i hope this helps your case / or at least gives you another idea/option..

 

[b773]

I haven't experimented with viewing NTFS partitions from Linux. You should be able to access a FAT32 drive from RedHat by slightly changing your fstab file. For viewing Linux partitions (on a separate drive) in Windows, I used Captain Nemo from Runtime Software to view the Linux drive from Win98. Worked without a hitch.

Originally posted by: piginspring
i don't worry about dual boot actually. for redhat7.2, u can choose not write to MBR, so there's no prob to set HD w/ xp pro as master. my old system can successfully dual boot w/o any problem. now my only concern for dual boot is the file systme. maybe i should format the other 2 partitions on the 60g WD to FAT32 so both linux and xp can access/exchange data...
anyway thx a lot for the suggestion...

 

[petrek]

Rather than starting a new thread, as this is basically along the same lines, and it looks like b773 could solve my troubles.

I have a 30G drive with Windows 2000 (master), and a 60G with RedHat Linux 7.3 (slave). Rather than locating the master boot record for linux on hdb, I placed it on hda, thus when GRUB loads up I only have one choice (RedHat Linux 7.3). Is there a quick fix to this problem? When I try to view the /etc/GRUB file it tells me that "Nautilus has no installed viewer capable of displaying /etc/Grub.conf"

Thnks

Linuxnewbie