Multi OS

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Kev06n

Geek Trainee
Hi people,

I am thinking about adding another hard drive to run Linux on, Should this be added as a slave on the same cable or should I connect to other IDE port as master?:confused:

I am new to the concept of multi OS's how does this work at boot?

Thanks for any info! Kev.
 
How big is your hard drive ? I just use one hard drive and partition it into sections.
Right now I have a triple boot, But i just bought a new 160 hard drive which i am going to attempt a 5 or 6 boot..
 
It doesnt really matter.
If you have two drives on the same ide port it takes yonks to transfer large files from one to the other. If you will be moving large files between the master and slave drives id just use the other ide port.
 
I have a 250Gb HDD which is already partitioned XP is on C:\ and I have used most of the space on D:\ for storage there's about 20gb left on it. I have read a couple of posts talking about messing with the MBR when its between 2 seperate HDD's is it the same case when they are on partitions?

The 2nd HDD is an old 20Gb I was going to use just because I have it!!

And I'm not really worried about transferring files between the two I'm just wanting to have a go at linux to see what its like!
 
Hi

In theory it does not really matter which way you choose to go.
When installing Linux, it will attempt to install the boot loader (the program which tells the PC where to boot from) to the first HDD on your system. This is set in your BIOS and is safe to assume that at the moment it is the drive which is already installed. If I remember correctly Windows has to be installed on the first partition of the drive, not sure if that drive has to be master. Probably not.

I think the decision has to be whether you need another drive, i.e. are you running out of space or are you adamant to keep the OS's seperate?
I, for example have two drives:
1. Holds three partitions - Windows and two Linux partitions
2. Holds all my files (Video, Audio, pictures, children's' homework....)
which are accessible by both OS's

This might not be the best way but it makes sense to me and in my PC I say what goes.... :eek:

I do not use IDE for my HDD's so I do not have to worry about master slave malarkey....

Whatever you do, make sure you read the installation documentation for your distribution carefully and come back if you need further assistance..... now there's a good boy!

Good luck!!! :cool:
 
Cheers for all the info guys, much appreciated!! I think I'm gonna try the extra drive so I can remove it if it all goes Pete Tong!

Anyways I'm off to study up on the installation info before I do anything!!

Thanks again, Kev.
 
Just a warning: when you set up Linux, make sure to choose the option that adds Linux and keeps Windows. The default is to overwrite Windows (if I remember correctly), so make sure to go in and change that.
 
m60dude5 said:
Just a warning: when you set up Linux, make sure to choose the option that adds Linux and keeps Windows. The default is to overwrite Windows (if I remember correctly), so make sure to go in and change that.
Click to expand...

I am not sure what you mean by this but 'on the face of it' this is not correct.
This is only true is you allow the installer to take over the whole drive and auto-use the drive.
When you install Linux you are normally given an option for an auto portioning or manual one. even then you get a confirmation stage before the changes are written to the disk.

If you are referring to the boot-loader installation, yes it will overwrite the windows boot loader if you want to but not by default. Then again it will ask the user to confirm this operation.
 
I have a 250Gb HDD which is already partitioned XP is on C:\ and I have used most of the space on D:\ for storage there's about 20gb left on it.
Click to expand...

Wow! so XP has what about 30 gb hard drive and you 220 GB for ?
I have a 160 split into 4- 40 gb each, and I am now running XP/LongHorn /Vista /Windows 2008 workstation....
 
Hey still not done it yet!! Can do with clearing a few things up!!

GHOSTMAN Nah, its split roughly 50/50, I do have around 60 free on C:\ but jus thought it'd be easier to bang in another drive than to go partitioning more!!

By the way I know this is the windows section of the forum but is Fedora a good choice for a beginner? Had a look at a few different versions and liked the look! Hope so as I've spent about 6 hours downloading the CD .iso's

And SABASHUALI do I want to overwrite the bootloader?? I have to admit I dont know anything about this!!
 
Kev06n said:
And SABASHUALI do I want to overwrite the bootloader?? I have to admit I dont know anything about this!!
Click to expand...

This should be an open question and not a yes or no....
Currently what happens is that the computer starts looking for the bootloader in the first partition of the first drive, your windows drive.
If you do not want to overwrite this boot loader, you will need to use a seperate drive for your linux (at this point you already have windows installed on the first partition of the drive and you cannot simply push it back to make space for a partition to hold a sepertae bootloader). Simply change the order of the booting devices (in BIOS) so linux is the first drive. However, in this situatuion you will need to add Windows to the Linux bootloader yourself. This is not hard to do (a few lines of text...) but requires the extra actions.

Overwriting the boot windows boot loader is really not that a bigger deal and is very much reversable in case of a disaster or if you just want to have the windows loader back. I know, I have done it a number of times... :doh: So My personal prefrence would be to let linux overwrite the windows bootlaoder. This way you do not need any extra actions....

Third option is to install linux and keep the windows bootloader. I never done this before so cannot comment on it.... You might need to keep the two OS's on seperate drives. But I might be wrong (probably am....hehe).

Hope I did not confuse you too much.... :x:
 
Just let linux install the bootloader. You can customize it easily if it doesnt do what you want it to do.
 
Hey, I've finally got round to installing fedora! I have got it up and running but did not overwrite the windows bootloader! I am now using the BIOS to switch between OS's which I personally dont mind as I have read a few pages that imply that grub can sometimes mess up the windows bootloader and cause problems that are probably too advanced for me to fix!! Thanks for all the help everyone dont think I would have used linux if I had'nt had the questions answered!:chk:
 
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