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Josh83
03-30-2005, 09:26 AM
Hi all

I have 3 HD partitions:

partition 1 (c: ) Windows XP
partition 2 (d: ) Programs and files for Windows XP
partition 3 Knoppix HD installation

I have the Knoppix boot manager installed (LiLo).

Now I'd like to format c: and reinstall Windows XP but I'm afraid that I could kill anything of the rest on the HD... How should I do this? So the LiLo is not being overwritten by Windows XP installation?

Thank you! :)
Josh

Harry Kuhman
03-30-2005, 09:33 AM
How should I do this? So the LiLo is not being overwritten by Windows XP installation? It almost certainly will. Your choices are to reinstall Lilo to the MBR again later (and every time you have to reinstall Windows) or to install Lilo to the Linux partition and then use a boot manager like SBL or XOSL to select between systems when booting. That way Lilo never need to be reinstalled (untill you change the Linux kernel). Yea, SBM of XOSL would need to be reinstalled, but SBM installs fast and easy from it's install exe and XOSL plans ahead for this and lets you save everything to a floppy so that after an install of anything that overwrites the MBR you just use the floppy to recover all of your configuration again.

Josh83
03-30-2005, 10:14 AM
this sounds very interesting, I'll take a look at those boot managers. are they free?

and how could I reinstall lilo after installing windows xp (if i do not decide to use another bm)?

thanks for help.

Harry Kuhman
03-30-2005, 10:18 AM
.... I'll take a look at those boot managers. are they free?
and how could I reinstall lilo after installing windows xp (if i do not decide to use another bm)?.
Yes, both are free. I like XOSL more (installed to it's own small partition), nicer look, more features, but Smart Boot Manager will do the job too.

I'n not sure exactly what is needed for reinstalling Lilo, since by always installing it to the Linux partition and using either of the above I've never had to do it. I would start by reading the lilo man page.

Josh83
03-30-2005, 01:55 PM
am i right that smart boot manager is installed also when i install xosl?

cyberoidx
03-30-2005, 04:32 PM
If you have a writer + floppy drive + Nero , do this.

1) mkliloboot to a floppy.
2) use nero to burn a bootable, choose floppy drive where you see the source image.
3)use the bootable CD whenever u want to boot to knoppix................
or
3)get into knoppix once by using the CD/floopy and mklilo to HD..... that should work.

Harry Kuhman
03-30-2005, 09:05 PM
am i right that smart boot manager is installed also when i install xosl?
My understanding (which could be "confused") is that some SBM code is being used to let XOSL do it's CD booting. You never see anything that looks like SBM when you install and run XOSL. The look and feel is completely different. SBM never shows through. Something very different than SBM seems to be written to the MBR.

Josh83
03-31-2005, 12:46 PM
@ cyberoidx:
thanks for the info. :)

@ harry:
now i'm not really sure yet... if i decide to install xosl to a dedicated partition, and after this i reinstall e.g. windows xp, then xp will overwrite the MBR with its own "bootmanager", right. so how can i "link" the MBR again to the dedicated partition?

thank you. :)

Josh83
03-31-2005, 12:55 PM
and another thing:

can i boot from cdroom? e.g. when i configure a hd for use with windows xp and then i select it and click "boot" (or something like that in xosl), can then be booted from cdrom?

cyberoidx
03-31-2005, 02:02 PM
i didn't really get your question.

You want to know if you can boot from cd rom after install of XP? Yes you can..... If u try using my method.

If u do it my way... then Windows will load if the lilo CD is not in the drive, if it is in the drivew, knoppix will boot. Before you try this, make sure that your bios can boot from CD's. that can be done in to ways. Check if Knoppix Live Cd works, or check bios boot order......

Josh83
03-31-2005, 06:49 PM
ok, i tried now the version with xosl... but unfortunately i can not install it. :(

i have my completely new notebook, and i started it with knoppix to format the whole harddisk... i created a fat16 partition of 100mb where i'd like to install xosl...

i start with windows 98 cd to dos mode.

i start the xosl install.exe from a cd that i burnt before.

i tried to install it to a dedicated partition and to a dos drive (i selected both time the 100mb fat16 partition).

but when i hit install it told me that an error occured! on the right it tells me that it tried to create a file and that this action failed...

i have no idea what i've done wrong... any idea? thanks a lot! :)

josh

Harry Kuhman
04-01-2005, 12:33 AM
but when i hit install it told me that an error occured! on the right it tells me that it tried to create a file and that this action failed...

i have no idea what i've done wrong... any idea? thanks a lot! :) I'm not clear on what your error is or how you got it. It's been a while since I've installed XOSL and talked others through it; I had no problems at all, a friend created a problem for himself in the floppy making step when the instructions called for a completely empty formatted floppy and he decided that he could/should use a bootable ormatted floppy with DOS on it. When he finally admitted he was doing that the problems went away.

I'm not sure about your Win98 DOS mode. When I installed XOSL I booted a DOS floppy and when from there. That might be your problem, but I can't say for sure. You should be able to format a bootable floppy in Win98 and ue that.

Josh83
04-01-2005, 08:15 AM
ok i got it now... it did not succeed when i started xosl right from the cd! now i reformatted the 100mb hd with fat16, started with the win98 cd rom to dos mode, copied all the install files to c: and run install.exe . it works well now. :)

now i've got another question about partitioning (if i'm allowed :))...
i wanna have the following partitions (don't care much about the sizes and what they are meant for):

- 100mb boot partition (fat16, hidden for all osses)
- windows xp pro (ntfs, hidden to all linuxes) 8gb
- windows 98 (fat32, hidden to all linuxes) 1gb
- programs for windows xp (fat32, hidden to windows 98) 20gb
- programs for windows 98 (fat32, hidden to windows xp pro) 4gb
- multimedia and other files for all osses (fat32) 20gb
- knoppix swap (hidden to windows) 1gb
- knoppix hd installation os (hidden to windows and other linuxes) 5gb
- ubuntu os (hidden to windows and other linuxes) 5gb

my question is now: how do i have to create this partitions? i can only have 3 primary as far as i know, so how should i divide my harddisk? which partitions should be primary, and which should be part of the extended partition?

thank you very much for info. :)
josh

Harry Kuhman
04-01-2005, 08:31 AM
Glad you got it working. As to the partitions, you can have up to 4 real partitions on the hard drive. One can be an extended partition that contains additional logical partitions (there is a limit on how many logical partitions go in an extended partition, I forget what it is. You might be able to exceed this limit somewhat by having multiple extended partitions, I'm not sure, have never tried that.) People wanting as many partitions as you often install extra hard drives. There are some "tricks" for having more than 4 real partitions on a hard drive but I would avoid them as most software does not know about them and some software (disk defragmenters and the like) might be confused by the stuff and overwrite data. I believe that both 98 and even xp can run from logical partitions, but the MS installers don't like to install them there. The best approaches to this are to either leave them on primary partitions or install them on primary partitions and then copy them to extended partitions with tools like Norton's Ghost. As far as I know any Linux can boot from a logical partition. I think the small XOSL partition can be on a logical partition on the extended partition as well, but I've not done this. I would think you might want to put XP and 98 on physical partitions and see how many logical partitions you can get, then start planning your other partitions.

Josh83
04-01-2005, 02:29 PM
thank you very much for your info. :) i'm gonna try that.