Dual Boot

[jimv7]

I have a scsi based computer, with 1 60 gig ide drive as extra storage and 5 scsi 160 drives for main use. Running win xp booting from scsi 0.

I decided to download and install mandrake 9.1 as a second os.

I partitioned and only formatted 40gig of the ide leaving 20gig for the use by mandrake.

Mandrake installed to the correct partition but gave me no boot options.

Hence my computer only boots into xp without options for linux.

I borrowed a friends floppy disk with PQ boot magic 8 on, and it does not see the scsi ntfs disks.

Is there a boot manager that will work with and find scsi/ntfs and linux.

[mark2]

Have you tried reinstalling Mandrake, during the install process it gives you the opportunity to create a boot floppy.?

BTW I didn't install GRUB or LILO when I installed Mandrake preferring the floppy option, so could mail you a copy of my boot floppy if it is any use ?

http://doc.mandrakelinux.com/MandrakeLinux....html#id2863142 may also have some help for you

[jimv7]

I reformatted the partition,and installed linux again, including creating a boot floppy.

Booting from the floppy it does not find the linux drive or partition.

It appears that mandrake will have to be installed on an a bootable ide drive instead booting to xp from scsi.

Any thoughts on this.

[mark2]

Saki.A found OSL2000 boot manager, which

Supports booting from harddisks, floppies, CD-ROMs & others

may be worth a look ?

[Agent Smith]

Hello jimv7, it looks like the prog suggested by mark2, will work. However should it not, I have done a bit of research on Powerquest for you. You may find these links helpfull

Installing Bootmagic on NTFS system

Installing on SCSI system (in German)

Above link translated to English on Google

A thought in our office, is that you may also need the scsi adaptor drivers alongside the bootmagic install to get it to read the scsi drives.

Another possible option (albeit a pain in the arse) would be to keep changing your primary boot drive in the bios each time you wish to change os.

Regards, Mr. Mouse.

[jimv7]

Thanks all,

mark2,

your boot does not work with my system, osl2000 does not even install, exe. errors.

Mr. Invincible Mouse,

I have reformatted my ide drive into fat32, installed pq to 40gig partition, pqmagic still does not see it from boot.

I am propably missing something simple, installed mandrake 10 times with different configurations last night and still no joy.

On reboot my puter loads straight into xp.

PQ magic, says cannot load, errors, but not which errors.

I will diconnect scsi and reinstall xp on front end of ide and try it again.

Thanks again.

[Agent Smith]

Hello again jimv7, the way I read the Powerquest info, is that Bootmagic needs to be on your primary boot disc. I'm guessing at the moment, but I suspect you currently have your scsi 0 as the primary boot device. As you now have a fat partition on your ide drive, can you not simply try to change the boot order in your bios?

Also just for further info, are your scsi drives set as an array or seperate drives, and what sort of scsi adapter (adaptec etc.) are you using?

Regards. Mr. M.

[jimv7]

Mr. Invincible Mouse,

Scsi set as separate drives, booting from scsi id 0, ide has only been used for storage and occasioal back-up.

I did not particulary want to boot from ide (2 slow) but will transfer ti ide via ghost, my operating system if I have to.

[jimv7]

adaptec 39160 scsi card.

[Agent Smith]

I appreciate that you don't really want to boot from your ide drive, but I'm pretty sure that in order to use a boot manager it needs to be at the front of the primary boot disc. The alternative would be to use something like partition magic, and create a small fat partition at the front of your scsi 0 drive to install boot manager.

However before doing that (and the possible dangers involved, always back up first) I would try booting from the ide drive first to see if you can get it to see both XP and Linux. If this works, then try the above suggestion.

Mr. M.