I have a machine with 3 hard drives (80GB, 8GB and 4 GB).

Windows XP Home is on the first (80GB), which I want to retain.

I want to put Debian on the second drive (8GB - hdb1) and be able to
dual boot to Windows or Debian.

There has been a problem in the past with kernel 2.6 and GRUB which
screwed up dual booting to Windows XP. I assume this has been solved but
I can't find confirmation of this.

I would like to install Debian so that I can boot from a floppy (I know
its slow, but it is safe), or from a copy CD so that the MBR is not
screwed - is this possible during installation?

Also, how do I make a copy of the Windows XP MBR in case I screw up the
boot process during Debian installation?

thanks for help
GeeBee

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

On Wed, 16 May 2007 14:00:24 +0200, GeeBee wrote:

> I have a machine with 3 hard drives (80GB, 8GB and 4 GB).
>
> Windows XP Home is on the first (80GB), which I want to retain.
>
> I want to put Debian on the second drive (8GB - hdb1) and be able to
> dual boot to Windows or Debian.
>
> There has been a problem in the past with kernel 2.6 and GRUB which
> screwed up dual booting to Windows XP. I assume this has been solved but
> I can't find confirmation of this.

I am not aware of any such problem. I've dual booted several distros and
several MS versions without indicident.

>
> I would like to install Debian so that I can boot from a floppy (I know
> its slow, but it is safe), or from a copy CD so that the MBR is not
> screwed - is this possible during installation?

Why not:

backup your precious MS MBR to a file - easy enough to do with 'dd'. And
then do your Linux install. Worst case - you want to go back, so you boot
a Live CD and restore the MBR from the file.

>
> Also, how do I make a copy of the Windows XP MBR in case I screw up the
> boot process during Debian installation?

Boot a live CD and use 'dd' to copy it to a file - save either to the MS
partition or to an external media. "dd if=/dev/hda of=filetosaveto bs=512
count=1" should do that for you.


>
> thanks for help
> GeeBee

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

On May 16, 8:00 am, GeeBee <Gee...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I have a machine with 3 hard drives (80GB, 8GB and 4 GB).
>
> Windows XP Home is on the first (80GB), which I want to retain.
>
> I want to put Debian on the second drive (8GB - hdb1) and be able to
> dual boot to Windows or Debian.
>
> There has been a problem in the past with kernel 2.6 and GRUB which
> screwed up dual booting to Windows XP. I assume this has been solved but
> I can't find confirmation of this.
>
> I would like to install Debian so that I can boot from a floppy (I know
> its slow, but it is safe), or from a copy CD so that the MBR is not
> screwed - is this possible during installation?
>
> Also, how do I make a copy of the Windows XP MBR in case I screw up the
> boot process during Debian installation?
>
> thanks for help
> GeeBee

Dual booting is what most of us still have, so I would say that with a
good degree of certainty it is save.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

thanks, that's what I needed to know.
GeeBee

ray wrote:
> On Wed, 16 May 2007 14:00:24 +0200, GeeBee wrote:
> 
>
> I am not aware of any such problem. I've dual booted several distros and
> several MS versions without indicident.
> 
>
> Why not:
>
> backup your precious MS MBR to a file - easy enough to do with 'dd'. And
> then do your Linux install. Worst case - you want to go back, so you boot
> a Live CD and restore the MBR from the file.
> 
>
> Boot a live CD and use 'dd' to copy it to a file - save either to the MS
> partition or to an external media. "dd if=/dev/hda of=filetosaveto bs=512
> count=1" should do that for you.
>
> 
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

After takin' a swig o' grog, ray belched out this bit o' wisdom:
 
>
> Why not:
>
> backup your precious MS MBR to a file - easy enough to do with 'dd'. And
> then do your Linux install. Worst case - you want to go back, so you boot
> a Live CD and restore the MBR from the file.
> 
>
> Boot a live CD and use 'dd' to copy it to a file - save either to the MS
> partition or to an external media. "dd if=/dev/hda of=filetosaveto bs=512
> count=1" should do that for you.

There's also a tool called sfdisk that I've just learned about, but
haven't used yet.  I think you can use it to save partition tables to a
file.

I found it on "SystemRescueCD", but it is probably on other live/rescue
CDs, too.

--
"When we do a new version we put in lots of new things that people (ask) for
.
And so, in no sense, is stability a reason to move to a new version. It's
never a reason."  -- Bill Gates, FOCUS interview
http://www.cantrip.org/nobugs.html

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

On May 16, 2:00 pm, GeeBee <Gee...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I have a machine with 3 hard drives (80GB, 8GB and 4 GB).
>
> Windows XP Home is on the first (80GB), which I want to retain.
>
> I want to put Debian on the second drive (8GB - hdb1) and be able to
> dual boot to Windows or Debian.

Sounds ok

> There has been a problem in the past with kernel 2.6 and GRUB which
> screwed up dual booting to Windows XP. I assume this has been solved but
> I can't find confirmation of this.

Not what I heard of.  Only real problem I have had with dual boot was
that MS Windows 98
destroied my Linux distribution.  And to install over a modem (56kbps)
is not fun... 

But have not had any problems with dual boot Linux using grub and MS
Windows XP.
(This machine is dual booted, but I only boot to MS Windows to play
games nowdays)

> I would like to install Debian so that I can boot from a floppy (I know
> its slow, but it is safe), or from a copy CD so that the MBR is not
> screwed - is this possible during installation?

Yes

> Also, how do I make a copy of the Windows XP MBR in case I screw up the
> boot process during Debian installation?

Make a boot disk for MS Windows XP, and from there you can always
restore
your MBR.  I would install grub on MBR, as I have not heard of any
problems
with installing dual boot, other then users installing didn't install
grub on the MBR.

Good luck

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Thanks for the info.

I used a Knoppix CD to make several copies of the MBR (using dd), as
well as downloading a Windows utility from Powerquest(?) which will also
copy the MBR to a file.

I bit the bullet this afternoon and installed Etch to the second drive.
During the install I was able to set-up a floppy boot for GRUB,
without modifying the MBR on hda1 - so I now can now explore Debian at
ease, whilst Windows boot up remains entirely untouched.

thanks for the help
GeeBee

Linonut wrote:
> After takin' a swig o' grog, ray belched out this bit o' wisdom:
> 
>
> There's also a tool called sfdisk that I've just learned about, but
> haven't used yet.  I think you can use it to save partition tables to a
> file.
>
> I found it on "SystemRescueCD", but it is probably on other live/rescue
> CDs, too.
>

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

AJackson wrote:

> Not what I heard of.  Only real problem I have had with dual boot was
> that MS Windows 98
> destroied my Linux distribution.  And to install over a modem (56kbps)
> is not fun... 

If you want to install Linux and Windows on the same computer/harddisk,
you should ALWAYS install Windows first! Nothing new since 1995. :-)

Greets, Sabine
--
http://www.atari-frosch.de/
PGP encryption welcome! Key-ID: 0xCC0AEF3E @ usual places.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

AJackson wrote:
>
> Make a boot disk for MS Windows XP, and from there you can always
> restore
> your MBR.  I would install grub on MBR, as I have not heard of any
> problems
> with installing dual boot, other then users installing didn't install
> grub on the MBR.
>

A little out of date now. You can't make a rescue floppy for XP,
but then the CD is bootable. The command is 'fixmbr' if you ask
for rescue and get the command prompt.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Sabine Engelhardt wrote:
> AJackson wrote:
> 
>
> If you want to install Linux and Windows on the same computer/harddisk,
> you should ALWAYS install Windows first! Nothing new since 1995. :-)
>

Actually, there's quite a lot new. The NT boot system has come and gone,
and it was only the domestics (9x, Me) that overwrote the MBR without
checking. 2000 and XP used the NT system, but the Vista boot manager is
new again.

It's still easiest to install Windows first, but reinstalling grub
should work if you don't. I had a Knoppix/XP dual boot to which I
added Vista, and Vista installed its boot manager in the XP partition
and did not disturb grub.

The Vista boot manager is a bit nasty to work with (not just a text
file to edit) but seems quite powerful. It can be preset with a number
of OS choices to boot in turn, after which it reverts to its default.
At last, it is possible to determine the next reboot choice from within
the OS without leaving the boot manager in a non-standard state.

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