Question about dual booting on two drives with both OS on second drive

[SHadowmeph]

I have two hard drives . on my first hard drive I had/ have win xp x64 and on my second drive I partitioned in and put Windows xp x 64 on the second partition. what I am going to do is format the first hard drive. and I am going to install Kbuntu onto the second hard drive on the first partition, am I still going to be able to boot both kubuntu and win xp after I format the first hard drive? and if not what am I supposed to do to fix this.

this is what the boot ini looks like( there is no boot ini on my new windows install that is on my second hard drive)

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windo ws XP Professional x64 Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="??"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS\WINDOW S.0="?"

[tinker]

Re: Question about dual booting on two drives with both OS on second drive

I have two hard drives . on my first hard drive I had/ have win xp x64 and on my second drive I partitioned in and put Windows xp x 64 on the second partition. what I am going to do is format the first hard drive. and I am going to install Kbuntu onto the second hard drive on the first partition, am I still going to be able to boot both kubuntu and win xp after I format the first hard drive? and if not what am I supposed to do to fix this.

If you format the first HD, then when the windows bootloader in the MBR of the first drive tries to find that boot.ini it will be gone.

If you choose to write the GRUB bootloader to the MBR of first drive, I would expect the Kubuntu installer to handle things correctly and also to recognise the XP installation on the second drive. However, I am not sure if XP can live on a partition that is not the first partition on a system. Older Win versions couldn't do that. One of the people here who is more familiar with XP can answer that question, and you should wait for that confirmation.

You have several choices to consider. What I would probably do in that situation would be to switch places with the two physical drives but that is not the only way. It depends somewhat on why you have decided to format the first drive and how you want to use it.

this is what the boot ini looks like( there is no boot ini on my new windows install that is on my second hard drive)

If you left the windows bootloader in the MBR of the first drive and just deleted all the files except the boot.ini from the first XP install and if you are sufficiently comfortable editing the boot.ini, I think you could run that way but it would be somewhat convoluted.

There are posts with suggestions here in the forum that are good instructions for installing a multiboot system. I think you might benefit from reading and understanding them before you decide what choice you will make. There are also many helpful people who will answer your questions about any parts you don't understand.

[Qqmike]

Re: Question about dual booting on two drives with both OS on second drive

Agree with tinker.

#1 You must decide which bootloader to use--the one with Windows or the one with Kubuntu (called GRUB).
#2 Which hard drive will you set as the first BIOS-boot drive?


Booting Windows from Kubuntu--GRUB (the way most of us here do it):
Bigpond, home: http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/
also see his GRUB page)
Psychocats: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/index.php
and:
How To GRUB Methods - Toolkit
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0
AND, if Windows is on a non-first HD, you'll need this:
How To GRUB Methods - Toolkit
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0
--- Install Windows XP *after* Kubuntu, and install XP to a non-first hard drive: map command Reply #12



Booting Linux from Windows--I haven't done it; have seen mixed results from other users:
Boot Linux from Windows
http://www.vsubhash.com/writeups/multiboot_os.asp
He’s a Windows guy, getting NTLDR to load Linux; if you dump Linux, easy to reverse.
Moral Volcano: Multi-boot OSs.

http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p9.html
“This webpage is to explain how I set up boot.ini in Windows and install WinGrub to boot either Windows via its own bootloader NTLDR or Linux via WinGrub, without touching the MBR.”

Ed’s Software Guide on Linux:
http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux...w2k-HOWTO.html

Technique is clearly described in Chapter 4 of Linux in a Nutshell.
Chapter 4 happens to be the freely downloadable sample chapter.