Dual boot from different drives?

[doubletap23]

Guys, I've searched and searched and searched and can't seem to find a clear answer on this one, so I've decided to register and see what the folks over here thought.

I have a Dell Dimension 3000, pretty boring. I've got 3 hard drives installed. One drive (C) has XP loaded onto it, one drive has Fedora 13, and one drive has all of my media and photography work on it.

I installed Fedora to play around with Linux, but now after a while, I've decided that I want to use it as my default OS. I haven't booted into Windows in who knows how long. The problem is, that when I boot the computer, it defaults to XP. The only way to get into Fedora is to press F12 at the proper time to select which drive I want to boot from. This is a hassle at times, because I have a tendency to forget and not hit F12 quick enough and have to start over.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure which bootloader I'm using, however I believe it is the XP boot.ini file, if I'm explaining this right. I tried modifying the boot.ini file in XP, but it seems as though the instructions I got are only when the two OS' are on the same drive in different partitions.

Any help anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.

**RECAP** Want to make linux default OS in a dual boot system on 2 seperate hard drives

[Lostfarmer]

The only way to get into Fedora is to press F12 at the proper time to select which drive I want to boot from.

That would indicate the XP boot loader is on the XP hdd and you have GRUB on the linux hdd.

1) Would try disconnecting the XP hdd, it likely will boot into linux with no problem. If it gives an error , let us know what it is and should be easy to fix. To boot into XP you would have to reconnect it.

2) It might be possible to enter bios (F?? or Delete) and change the hdd boot order, put linux hdd first. It might not be F12 for this change. On my comp have 'delete' for a permanent change and F11 for on the fly 'one time' change.

3) If the bios does not permit a permanent change of hdd boot order and you do not want to disconnect the XP hdd , do a web search for 'grub for dos'. It also works with XP.

[nujinini]

Using Fedora, do you think its possible to just repair grub by...

su -
Password:
# grub
# find /boot/grub/stage1
# root (hdX,X)
# setup (hdX,X)
# quit

This might allow user to choose between Fedora and XP.
Honestly, I'm not also sure if this is what you need to do. Hope this helps in any way.

Good luck!

[glennzo]

There are several solutions to this problem. You can boot Fedora using Windows' boot.ini. I've never done it. Just know it can be done, since I've "been around" Linux for several years. I wouldn't think that this is the optimal solution though. Another option (the best in my opinion) is to reinstall Fedora's boot loader, grub, this time installing to the MBR. That *should* get you a grub boot menu with the option to boot Fedora or Other (Windows). This can be done by booting with the Fedora installation disk and choosing Rescue Mode. Once grub is installed you can modify it so that Other actually says something like Windows XP, change the menu delay to whatever you like in terms of seconds, get rid of the hidden menu "feature", etc. So there you are, research reinstalling Fedora's grub boot loader using Rescue Mode. That info is all over the Internet and in my opinion it's the best solution for dual booting.

Now I don't visit this forum more than once or twice a day. Although I'd be glad to help you along I can't guarantee that any replies will be timely, but there are many members here who are more than qualified (and far more experienced than I) to take this ball and run with it.

[rakeshprusty]

hii... i think this solution may help you for ur dual booting os....
please follow the steps


1.go to /etc/grub/grub.conf in linux in root mode.

2.grub.conf file::

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,4)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sdb2
# initrd /initrd-version.img
# boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,4)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
password --md5 $1$2Srxmp06%KSkbeE#7deIrX8ucnCFzn/
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux (2.6.17-1.EL)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.17-1.EL ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.17-1.EL.img
title Windows XP Professional
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

3.You can change the preference by changing “default=1” or if more than 2 OS are there,then you can change it by making “default=2”.

4.This file grub.conf tells that there are two OS has been installed in one harddisk.

a . Red hat linux
b. Windows XP

5.Red hat is in root(hd0,4).

this means that red hat has been installed in partition 1 of the hard disk.
So “default=0” means it by default takes the red hat to be booted first in comparison to XP.
6.So if we are making “default=1” , then by default XP will be booted first.

7.“Timeout=5 “ it means , after what time the default operating system will be started.
So by changing this , we can change the default time also.



i think this steps may help u to get rid of ur prob.....

[fast_ian]

Hi,

I thought I'd found the answer above!.... [As a noob to the forums I figured I should show I at least tried ]

The story;
- P4 machine has been running Ubuntu from a 500GB SATA drive (details below) /dev/sda
- 250GB of this was used to install RHEL V3 (/dev/sda3)
- The machine also contains an IDE Windows XP drive - /dev/hda1

During the install of RH I allowed GRUB to install itself onto the XP drive. Now when I boot I can choose "DOS" () or Redhat. It offers Ubuntu, but I get the "chainloader +1" error.

Damnit! - I was gonna attach fdisk & grub.conf to this, but they're on the "new" (non-networkable for now!) RH box. Summary:

/dev/sda3 Boot (Redhat)
/dev/sda5 Ubuntu
/dev/hda1 Boot XP (and Grub)

Grub.conf;
.
title RHEL WS
root (hd1,2)
kernel....
.
title Ubuntu
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1

This looks OK to me - RH is at hd1,2 & Ubuntu is at hd1,0 ?(?) - Should it be "hd1,1"?

TIA, and sorry for no "real" output - Having written this much I didn't want to give up!

Cheers,
Ian

[fast_ian]

...This looks OK to me - RH is at hd1,2 & Ubuntu is at hd1,0 ?(?) - Should it be "hd1,1"?

Tried that. Now I get (after chainloder +1);

"Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format"

I'm guessing it tried to boot from /swap or something.... I'll try hd1,3 & report back

EDIT: Tried that too - Same error.

[Lostfarmer]

/dev/sda5 Ubuntu

will be hdx,4. Normaly would say sda would be 'hd0' but if your menu.lst REHL works with it being 'hd1', then so be it.
title Ubuntu
rootnoverify (hd1,4)
chainloader +1

Unless Ubuntu had its grub installed on its partition then the chainloading will not work.
In that case you will need to have Ubuntu menu.lst entrie basicly the same an RHEL's. You will need to change the partition # and use the correct file names. Look in Ubuntu's '/boot' for the file names to use.

You likely can look at Ubuntu's menu.lst 'if it is useing grub legacy and not grub 2' and copy/paste to RHEL's menu.lst.

If you can not figure it out, post RHEL's menu.lst entrie ' do not need the whole menu.lst' and Ubuntu's kernel name /boot/ 'vmlinuz****' and initrd complete names.