Dear Debian Folks, I think this query is better sent to this list not debian amd64 so I have relayed it here.....
I run Lenny AMD64 on an AMD64 box with 8GB RAM and have two SATA drives. The first drive has the Lenny on it. I installed the other drive the other day so I could put Windows 7 on it that I need for some numerical integration calculations. I am trying to avoid reinstalling the Debian if I can but dual booting the two Oses e.g. using Grub in some way...... I tried installing the Windows on the new disk but it wouldn't install with the first drive present. It said it couldn't create or locate an existing partition or something..... The cure here according to Windows folks seemed to be to disconnect the other drive (with the Linux on it) from the motherboard and then reboot and install the Windows. This worked a treat. It couldn't see the other drive with the funny primary logical partition and swap space (to Windows but not to Linux folks) because it wasn't there..... It just saw one lonely unformatted unallocated unused SATA drive and installed itself on it. It was simple enough that it went for it without grumbling. After I finished the installation, I then rebooted the machine after reconnecting the other hard drive with Debian on it to the motherboard. I then rebooted the PC to find out what on earth would happen then........ (brave eh?!! maybe just foolhardy.....) Then the PC rebooted and Grub fired up and only saw the first drive (sda) and Debian booted up just fine. I didn't look like grub had seen the new drive with the Windows on it. (I had actually run the Debian installer the other day just to see if it could detect the new drive and it did do - so grub should have no problem booting it providing I can encourage it to notice it a little bit but I'm not quite sure how to get it do that just yet). I have a feeling that if it could see the other drive it might end up being known as /dev/sdb etc..... But it needs a bit of a stage prompt here..... Can anyone suggest a way to get grub to see the new drive and the Windows? I could try mounting the Windows drive onto the Linux file tree..... Would that encourage grub to see it on a reboot and allow me the option of booting the Windows OS itself? I looked around on google and read a few suggestions in this area and wondered if I couldn't put something like this into the grub menu file (by the way in what directory does the grub menu file live?) : title Windows 7 map (sd0) (sd1) map (sd1) (sd1) rootnoverify (sd 0,0) chainloader +1 I am not exactly sure if that would work or precisely what it does but would it be helpful here? Would it be helpful if I ran /sbin/grub-install --recheck Suggestions welcome. If this works, then it could be a general way to allow people to install Linux first, not Windows and not have to reinstall the Linux to get grub to work or use e.g. EasyBCD or Partition Magic on Windows to get a dual boot set up to fire up the unreinstalled Linux from Windows and not use grub from then on etc. What you want to be able to do is to start with Linux and Grub, add the Windows and then get Grub to see both and give you the choice of which to fire up. Then if you have to use Windows (I can't get around this), Linux and grub are still taking precedence. Regards Michael Fothergill > Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 09:58:43 -0200 > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: dumb question about dual booting debian and Windows 7 on > separate drives..... > > There's nothing amd64 specific in this question, debian-user would > have been better. > > On Qua, 08 Dez 2010, Michael Fothergill wrote: > > I bought an extra SATA drive and hooked it up so now I have two one > > with Debian on it. My plan is to install Windows on the new > > drive...... If you installed Windows on the new drive and then > > installed Debian grub would see the Windows on the other drive and > > create a boot option for you to fire it up if you wanted to when you > > boot the PC up..... > > > > But if you installed debian first as I have on one disk and then add > > Windows on the other one then if you boot up the machine it will load > > Windows and you won't get a choice to fire up Linux (at least I don't > > expect it). > > Yeah, installing Windows will probably overwrite you MBR and make you > linux unbootable. > > But that's easy to recover. Just boot any linux CD (the debian > installer CD will probably work, or use some live distro) and recover > grub: > > http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/restore-debian-linux-grub-boot-loader.html > > There are many other similar guides. > > > It is possible I think to modify the bootloader in Windows (without > > using e.g. Partition Magic) to sniff out the Linux and allow you to > > choice of booting it when you boot up the PC...... > > That is possible, but I have never tried. I personally don't like that > solution much, I'd rather trust grub to boot Windows that trust > Windows to boot anything that is not Windows. > > > -- > I don't get no respect. > > Eduardo M KALINOWSKI > [email protected] > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] > Archive: > http://lists.debian.org/[email protected] >
