Hello:
Ok, I tried installing Debian Linux (Sarge) in my windows 2000 laptop. Just some things to keep in mind:
1. I already have windows 2000 installed
2. I DO NOT have a floppy drive.
3. I only have one harddrive
3. My partition table looks like this:
hda1 - 17 GBS - NTFS (C:\ windows 2000)
hda5 - 10 GBS - NTFS (E: this just has a ghost file back up of my C:)
hda6 - 500MBS - FAT32( i will use this to move files between linux and windows)
hda7 - 3.5GBS - ext3 (/home)
hda8 - 3.5GBS - ext3 (/usr)
hda9 - 1.0 GB - (SWAP)
hda3 - 1.5 GB - ext3 (/)
The hda3, hda7, hda8, hda9 partitions I created during the Linux installation from empty space. The way that I am planning to install Linux is to allow the NTLDR to stay on the MBR and adjust the boot.ini file in windows 2000 so that it adds Linux to the NTLDR boot menu, then to install GRUB to the boot sector of my hda3 partition so in other words let NTLDR worry about initial boot time and GRUB to kick in only once Linux is selected from the NTLDR menu. So when I got to the step in the Linux installation where it asks me where to install GRUB to I said NOT to install to the MBR but to /dev/hda3 and it installed fine and everything. But here is the tricky part, since I dont have a floppy drive I can't just choose to reboot after the installation because then I wont be able to use a boot floppy to boot Linux redering me unable to access Debian.
So at the end of the installation I choose to switch over to shell. And I was told to do this:
1. use the dd utility to dump the GRUB boot sector to a file like this:
# dd if=/dev/hda3 of=/usr/tmp/debian.mbr bs=512 count=1
2. Then mount my Fat32 partition to copy the file to:
# mkdir /myCdrive
# mount -t vfat /dev/hda6 /myShare
3. The reboot the system and log on to windows
4. Copy the file from my FAT32 partition to my C:
5. Add this line to my boot.ini:
C:\debian.mbr = "Debian GNU/Linux"
HOWEVER, when I run the "dd" utility from shell it tells me that there is no file called /dev/hda3 so I actually cd into /dev and I cant see no hda3 file nor directory. Is this correct? amd I running the dd utility incorrectly? how come I can't dump the boot sector from hda3 to a file? also is that the correct way to mount a fat32 partition from Debian?
Any help would be appreciatted.
P.S.
I have also lost my ability to boot into windows now. But I am just mainly concerned about getting an answered to the above questions, Thanx!
