How to do a win95/NT/Linux boot.

[Jman]

I want to be able to put win95, NT, and Linux on one hard drive. I've heard I have to do 3 partitions? Then what?

[[email protected]]

Use PowerQuest Partition Magic to setup and format the partitions. The package also comes with another program called Boot Magic which you can then use to select which operating System to boot into and which order

[Ballav]

What distribution of Linux will you be running? I actually prefer to use Linux fdisk to manage the partitions and LILO for booting. Also, with most distributions, you will need two partitions for Linux, the root partition, and a swap partition. NT can reside on the same partition as win9x tho.

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Adam Ball
[email protected]
[email protected]

[Jman]

So I can put NT and WIN95 on the C: drive and linux on D:?

NT needs to be FAT16 right?

(Has anyone else done this yet?)
Oh yeah, it's Redhat 6.0

[This message has been edited by Jman (edited September 17, 1999).]

[pcshark]

Correction for DocBen: The app that comes with Partition Magic is called Boot Manager, and it's IBM's boot selection menu. It requires its own 2MB partition, which must be the active partition. I've been using Boot Manager to boot into DOS, OS/2, and NT for about 2 years now, prior to that I've used it to boot Win95, OS/2, I've set up Linux on it before, it works very well. Boot manager originally shipped and still ships as part of the OS/2 operating system.
What I've typically done is to first install the boot manager to the end of the hard drive, then create my three primary partitions. To install an operating system, make that partition active through FDISK, and install the OS, then make the Boot Manager active in FDISK and use Partition Magic (or OS/2 FDISK) to add the newly installed partition to the boot menu.
Another product I've tried but have not liked as much as boot manager is System Commander. It allows for a whole boatload of operating systems (up to 254 on one PC!) but it's a little messier. Give them both a try if you like to tinker. You may find you like System Commander better. I prefer Boot Manager.

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R. Bret Walker, CNE

[Ballav]

Actually, Linux will not reside on D: as it needs linux native partitions. If you see them in MS fdisk, they will show as 'non dos partition' and you won't see them in explorer. That's only if you make the partitions through linux fdisk and set them as primary partitions tho (you can have 4 under linux, and dos extended counts as one as far as i can tell). If you are installing NT so you can learn to admin and tech the system, I strongly reccomend that you install win9x to C: and make it fat16, NT to D: and make it NTFS (so you can learn to play with permissions and such). But yes, you can put win9x and NT both on C:.

Have fun!

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Adam Ball
[email protected]
[email protected]

[Jman]

Thank you very much for the replys. I will have fun trying this and if it works I'll let you all know. At the moment it looks like I'll just add removable hard drive brackets and just buy two new hard drives (If I ever get the money)

If I don't have the money this will be the way I go with all of the on one hard drive.

[Ballav]

No problem, if you have any other questions (especialy about getting Linux and Windows 9x/NT multi booting), feel free to email me. If I don't know the answer, I'll poke around a bit and look before just tellin ya 'I don't know'

Have fun

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Adam Ball
[email protected]
[email protected]