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How setup Dual Boot?

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12 replies

by gmg

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I have Dell PC with Windows 98 installed, which freezes at some times. So I want to add 1 more disk and install Linux on it. Once I have done it, I want to reinstall Windows again on C drive. The objective is to maintain atleast 1 working environment, until the next one stabilises. And I want to choose from both when I boot the machine. Any best way doing this?

12 replies

by ef

You are going to install 98 a few times if you want to do it this way. The order of installations are normally as follows..(if you want them all)
1-Windows 98
2-Windows NT
3-Linux
Windows 98 always goes 1st and Linux goes last. Best pratice is to make a say 100MB boot partition thats FAT16. Only use this partition for bootiing files etc. This will make it easy to make multiboot setup's in future. The rest of your partition can then be FAT32 / NTFS etc. as needed. Make sure you read the HOWTO carefully when installing Linux (Must install its boot partition on the Linux partition and then copy it over to your boot partition etc.)

by jpereira

The problem is that installing Win98 overwrites the master boot record (MBR) of your C drive, so if you install Linux first you will find that you can't boot into it after you have reinstalled Win98.

Here's a sequence that might work:
1. installLinux on your second disk, make sure you configure lilo to dual boot Win98 and Linux.
2. create a Linux boot floppy - actually the install process might prompt you to do this.
2.5. check that you can boot into both Win98 and Linux
3. Install Win98 - this screws your MBR so lilo will no longer work, but you have a boot disk.
4. Boot linux from the boot disk and reconfigure lilo (type 'lilo' at the root command prompt).

If 4 doesn't work, you should find that you can reinstall Linux from scratch without losing anything that's already there.

by markmu

I've installed Corel Linux and it automatically configures the MBR to boot a linux menu to either start linux or windows. It's the easiest to install. You can always use a third party software like disk commander or partition majic which can handle multiple operating system boots.

One other tip, if you make a mistake and make the MBR on the primary disk linux bootable. Use fdisk /mbr to clear the MBR and then you should be able to boot back to dos/windows.

by saihib

Why don't you make sure your Win98 is stable before you install Linux? Use System Commander to control your dual boot.

by frock222

I think the best solution to your problem is to just install the Linux you will not have all the freezes and crashes for Linux is a much more stable system.

by riyaz

I think your objective is not possible. But you can boot from both OS, but I do not think you can reinstall the 98 without freezing. It will freeze on installation.
Best thing is troubleshoot and find why window hangs. May be it's power problem.

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