[KLUG Members] re: Update on Dual boot problem on home computer

[Mike Williams]

>
> Subject:
> [KLUG Members] Update on Dual boot problem on home computer
> From:
> "Robert V. Kanaley" <rvk@agdia.com>
>
>  
>
<snip>

>The quality of my home life now depends upon a Norton rescue/recovery Zip
>disk and floppy. Failing that, and assuming I am still alive, it will be
>recovery CD time followed by two days of reinstalling and updating legacy
>apps. If not, thank you all for your help and suggestions over the years;
>and I am fond of creeping lilacs should you ever be in the vicinity of the
>Elkhart paupers grave yard.
>  
>
Ouch.  Hope you have at least the data backed up somewhere.  It's always 
risky to attempt things like Partition Magic without reliable backup, 
although I've gotten away with it a few times.  Always does bad things 
to my blood pressure when I reach the point of no return, though.

>Still looking for viable way to get my home computer to dual boot.
>
If you're down to reinstalling from scratch, at least you should be able 
to get dual-boot working.  Install the Windows first, but leave space on 
the drive for the Linux.  Every recent distro I've played with will 
recognize that there's another OS on the drive and set up GRUB/Lilo for 
dual boot. 

If you want to get fancier, you might be able to get away with creating 
the partitions in Linux (either a boot disk or go partway through the 
Linux installation), then install Windows on the partition you created 
for it, then install Linux.  For this to work, you will likely need to 
set the Windows partition "active" before you boot the Windows CD.