linux / windows dual boot

[ayyon2157]

Hi, and a belated thankyou to everyone who helped me last time.  I have my modem and SLACKWARE LINUX working great, but now I am trying to DUAL BOOT, with a spectacular lack of success.  Once I get everything set up like seems right to me, when I boot Linux with a floppy, I get a half a monitor full of "99".  I have windows 98 v2 on a 20 gig "C" drive (master) and 8 gig on /dev/hdb. (slave)  (two separate hard drives). Either will work fine alone, but neither will boot if hooked up as master/slave.

     I would like to have LILO give me a choice, but am quite willing to boot from a floppy if necessary.
 
I can't seem to get the sound to work with linux either, either with a SOUNDBLASTER CARD or the "onboard" audio.

Thanks in advance

ayyon2157

[Understudy]

http://gag.sourceforge.net/

I highly recommend this for boot software on dual boot systems. I have used it myself and have had zero problems with it.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Present]

several questions....

does bios recognize both drives simultaneously?
of so...

will windows boot with the linux drive installed (it should, as long as windows is configured as the first primary partition?
if so...

you have several options:
1. reinstall linux
2. reinstall Lilo or Grub
3. reinstall a chainloader, like XOSL

Note: on dual boot systems it is almost always best to install windows first, then linux.  MS does not play well with others.

Good Luck

[wbanks]

This thread may be dead but I will go out on a limb...

I read that you are using 2 hard drives to boot 2 operating systems with little luck...the simplest way to use windows and Linux with 2 hard drives is to use drive trays or drive caddys! I run a small computer buisness and I have customers that use all sorts of operating systems. So I can walk customers thru simple problems I use a drive caddy and tray for each operating system rather than try to multiple boot the various OS's

The installation is simple and you can swap out the different drives in seconds once everything is set up! Most caddys and trays are under $20 but I suggest you find ones that have built in drive fans to keep the drives cool! CompUSA, ZipZoomFly and most other computer stores carry them so they are easy to find!

Hope this helps!

Will

[Present]

trays are a simple solution, but dual boot is actually quite simple:

install windows
install linux

this order is very important because windows is worthless installing on systems where other OS'es reside, it's just too stupid and monopolistic.  linux on the other hand, can handle a dual boot environment with just about any other OS you can throw at it.

we ran both operating systems in our business for several years using dual boot, until "wine" and "crossover office" matured to the point that they can run any windows programs we need on linux natively (well we did use vmware for a couple years too).  we have almost completely switched over to being a strictly linux environment (we are twilighting quickbooks pro soon, our last windows program).  after that we won't need wine to get windows progs to run on linux any more.

good luck,
pres