Installing Linux with a dual boot

Installing Linux with a dual boot

I recently installed Linux on a second hard drive, separate from Windows XP. I installed GRUB in the MBR, but it would not load Windows and only defaulted to Linux each time, saying that there was an error finding the Windows partition.

Is there a way of installing Linux (without GRUB) and editing the Windows boot.ini to give me an option to dual-boot? If not, any suggestions?

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Well, you did something strange. I would not install GRUB to the MBR. Instead, I would shrink the Windows partition on the first drive, create a Linux boot partition on it, install GRUB to the Linux boot partition only, change the Linux boot partition to be the active partition, and let GRUB find the Windows partition during Linux installation. That works fine for me. I would mount the small Linux boot partition as the /boot file system on the second drive.

This was first published in October 2003

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