On Fri, 27 Dec 1996, Buddha Buck wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> All of the Linux+Win95 documentation I have talks about adding Linux to
> a working Win95 setup. I'm interested in doing the reverse. I have
> heard that Win95 likes to play around with the MBR and partition tables
> to make sure that it is the only or primary OS on the system. How can I
> make certain that I don't lose anything critical when installing it?
>
I have installed about 1/2 dozen of the Debian Linux/Windows95 dual boot
machines. The method I have found most reliable is to not use the master
boot record at all for LILO. This is because occasionally, it is
necessary to do some reinstallation in W95 and it WILL take over the MBR
and wipe out anything that dares to be there. My solution is to make 2
partitions in the first 1024 cylinders. The first for Windows95 and the
the second for Linux. I allow Windows 95 to install itself on the first
partition and make it bootable. I then boot Linux from the boot floppy
and go into fdisk and make the second (Linux) partition bootable. Since I
have set up Lilo to load from the boot sector of the second partition, the
system will now boot correctly. If I ever need to do a serious
reinstallation of Windows95, I just change the first partition to be the
bootable one and do what I need to do, recovering the LILO in the same way
as before.
My lilo.conf has the line
boot=/dev/hda2
specifying the partition number will tell LILO to use the boot sector.
If you currently have used LILO with the MBR, you might have to clear it
out with the DOS fdisk /MBR command before you do this.
I will be happy to send you my full lilo.conf if you need it. I don't
have access to it now, I happen to be in W95 :)
Cheers,
Carlo
***********************************************************************
* Carlo U. Segre *
* Department of Biological, Chemical and Physical Sciences *
* Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616 *
* Voice: (312) 567-3498 FAX: (312) 567-3494 *
* [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
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