XP/Linux Dual boot is not working as expected

[Jay10826]

I hope this is in the right forum. Its not exactly a problem, since everything is working, but more of a question since its not working as i expected.

I have 2 hard drives, xp pro was already installed on the primary 80GB drive. The other day i decided to install Linux on the 2nd (160GB drive), so i cleared 10GB at the beginning of that drive and left it unallocated. I booted from the Mandrake Linux cd and it installed it onto the 2nd hard drive in the 10GB of free space.

I assumed that, from now on, i could set the bios to boot from HDD0 and it would boot into windows, and then when i wanna boot into linux i would change the bios to boot from HDD1. This is not happening at all. When i boot from HDD0, it comes up w/ the linus boot up menu (which lets me choose to start linux or windows, and both work fine). When i boot from HDD1 it says ntldr is missing (which is fine b/c i know ntldr is a windows thing, but shouldn't it boot into linux?). Did linux take over the MBR of both hard drives, or what?

 

[linney]

Welcome to Dual Booting. You'll probably find all the Linux and XP boot files are installed on your first booting Hard Drive. These direct, depending on your choice, the operating system which boots. There will not be any Linux boot files on it's Hard Drive (your second drive). However, I must admit a total ignorance of all things Linux.

How to Remove the Linux LILO Boot Manager

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315224&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

http://www.google.com/search?source...GGLD:2004-50,GGLD:en&q=dual+boot+linux+and+xp

http://groups-beta.google.com/group...GGLD:2004-50,GGLD:en&q=dual+boot+linux+and+xp

 

[smah]

Linney is correct, everything should be on the first hard drive. If you want to boot as you describe, it will actually take a bit more work.

Mandrake (Officially Mandriva now) is one of the few distros that still uses lilo by default. Using linney's link above you can uninstall lilo and xp will boot normally again. Then, the easiest and most automatic way to do what you want is to disconnect the XP drive cable entirely, set your bios to boot off the second drive and reinstall Mandrake. Then reconnect the hardware as it was and each OS will boot seperately using your bios drive settings because each drive will contain it's own boot sector and boot loader only for the OS on that particular drive.