how do i boot linux from a second hard drive?

Question

My computer has 2 hard drives. The first one is the c drive with windows. The second is has 2 partitions, I want to be able to choose, before windows starts up, to boot from a certain partition on my second hard drive. Can I do that? If so, how do I do it and what do i need to instal.

Answer 1

when you install linux, you will get the option to install a boot loader e.g. Grub or Lilo etc. The choice you get depends on which Linux you are using. If you install Lilo/Grub from the installation disk then the menu will be set up automatically, otherwise you need to add entries for the windows partition eg hda1 etc and recompile the boot loader to include your new entry. The exact syntax of the entry will depend on which bootloader you will be using - use the man or apropos pages to get more help on the syntax.

You dont have to use a Linux Bootloader - there are many other bootloaders out there too e.g. system commander , Partition Magic Boot Loader. The latter is my favourate as its very easy to use and set up.

Windows 2000/xp also has a built in boot loader - you need to change the boot.ini file to load other partition. (By default boot.ini is either hidden or read only and sits in the root partition of windows - to see it change the Folder Settings for Windows Explorer)

Hope this helps

Answer 2

You definitely can. openSuse and Ubuntu would be my first picks. They're easy to setup and have excellent partition managers built into the installation process.

Both of the distros will ask you where you want to install them. If you choose manual install you can manually create the linux partitions you'll need and place them where you want. Both have a nice graphical interface. Ubuntu uses the grub boot manager which installs automatically and when you start your computer after the install the grub menu will pop up asking if you want to launch linux or windows. openSuse has one as well but I don't know the name.

I'd recommend openSuse 10.2 and the KDE desktop which is an option you can select during the installation process. That will not only be intuitive for a windows user but it will also automatically mount the windows partition so you can read your windows files (Ubuntu can do this too but it takes some work).

Answer 3

Both Windows and Linux give you the capability to choose which OS you wish to boot. This is done through a program called a boot loader. In Windows, the boot loading is handled through boot.ini - there's an article on it at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022

Linux has multiple boot loaders to choose from, although I believe GRUB (article at http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/grub/grub.htm) is the most popular.

The easiest way to do this is to install Windows, then install Linux. When you do the Linux install it will ask you what boot loader you want to use and what operating systems you want on it, and it'll handle the rest. Sorry I can't give you more detail, but exactly what happens depends upon the Linux distro you're using.

Answer 4

1) Install Linux on one of the drives.
2) Go to SETUP when the computer boots and change the boot drive to the Linux drive.

You can change the boot order whenever you wish.

Answer 5

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