Windows Boot Record and OS on different drives...

Wonder if anyone can help...

Ive gone through multiply installs of XP and win2k of this system, ive finally got a nice stable install, However the PC boots off my 20Gb disk but the OS is installed on the 80gb.

I need the 20gb to install red hat for uni work, however pc wont boot from the 80 Wondering if therers anyway to transfer the boot record or something? sorry not had a gr8 deal of experience with multiply OSs and boot thingies

Thanks a lot.

 

i would make a bual boot screen.. so you can boot into a "prompt" screen and chose which OS you want to run. if you choise windows it will take you to your 80GB drive (probably D:\) so it will look something like the following:

OS_______|_____Operation
linux______|_____Continue normal boot
windows___|_____Call d:\winnt\win

*sorry for the losey attempt @ making a table*

i think that should work.. never tried it, but it logic seems to make sense.


now the easiest thing for you to do, would be to have a dual boot off one HD. run the install of linux on your drive D, and change your DIP switches so it is the master and make your 20GB the slave.. by doing the install of lilnux, you *should* now have a dual boot screen.. in which you can choose the OS you want to boot to.. and now you have a 20GB HDD for backing up files and such.. i think option 2 here is the way that i would go.

hope that was helpful,

 

Hi, thx for the information, however I wish it was as simple

Linux cant partition the drive, complains of being unable to set as primary partition, and when i use Partition magic to partition it comes up with an error, saying Partition table is bad

So i was hoping there was a way that i could transfer the current boot settings to boot of the 80gb straight to the good install of XP on that drive, so i could simple fdisk and wipe 20 all together.

Preferly id just like to partition the 20 into 2 lots of 10gbs, but alas no non distructive partitioning tools seem to work.

Many thanks.

 

i dont think its quite that simple.. if you dont mind losing the info on your win drive (80GB) this is what i would do.. remember linux and windows dont get along, and that is probably why you are running into this problem with partitions.. however, linux is a little more forgiving thus, if you do an install of linux 1st and windows 2nd you will probably be able to get rid of this problem...

if you want to proceed do the following:
1.get a copy of techWorm 5.4 and do a full format of your drive (80GB) **remember to back up all the info that you wish to keep

2. if you want to make 2 partitions grab a copy of the win98 SE bootdisk off the same site and use FDISK to create 2 partitions (whatever size you want) however, if you dont care about the partitions go onto step 3.

3. Throw in your Linux disk and do your install.

4. once completed your linux install, do your windows install..

~~~~
that should work for ya

 

Heh, just when I get XP running smootly
Tbh i cant think of whats taking all that space so it is tempting to back up a few odd bids and format.

Ill try to blag a lil HD for linux first I think got a 4 gig of someonemm but it didnt work