From: not.my.real@email.address   
      
   philo wrote:   
      
   > On 11/11/2011 04:19 PM, Auric__ wrote:   
   >> philo wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> On 11/11/2011 09:04 AM, bad sector wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Is there a requirement for the first primary partition for any   
   >>>> windows installation (xp or 7)? Can one install linux on the 1st   
   >>>> primary and windows on the 2nd?   
   >>>>   
   >>>> I know that a (any) primary "is" required at least to boot windows.   
   >>>   
   >>> It's true that the "boot" files for Windows must be on the first   
   >>> primary partition   
   >>>   
   >>> the rest of Windows can be on any drive though   
   >>   
   >> Not necessarily true. I have Windows and its boot files on the 3rd   
   >> partition (hda3) and it works just fine. (hda1 is Linux /boot; hda2 is   
   >> DOS C:, marked active but with no drive letter under Windows.)   
   >>   
   >> In theory, Windows *should* be able to boot from any partition;   
   >> possibly even from extended partitions and/or drives other than the   
   >> primary master (although I haven't tried).   
   >   
   > If you check you will see that your windows boot files are on your first   
   > active primary partition ...partition C:   
      
   Trust me, sir, I *do* know how to do this sort of thing; I've been doing it   
   for many years. But let's take a look. Here's my DOS drive (as seen by   
   Linux):   
       bash-4.1$ ls -al /mnt/dos/   
       total 352   
       drwxrwxrwx  3 root root  16384 Nov 12 01:54 .   
       drwxr-xr-x 12 root root   4096 Nov  8 02:06 ..   
       drwxrwxrwx  2 root root   8192 Oct 15 02:13 Command   
       -rw-rw-rw-  1 root root    270 Oct 21 04:30 autoexec.bat   
       -rw-rw-rw-  1 root root  93890 Apr 23  1999 command.com   
       -rw-rw-rw-  1 root root    163 Oct 15 06:03 config.sys   
       -r--r--r--  1 root root 222390 Apr 23  1999 io.sys   
       -rw-rw-rw-  1 root root   1056 Oct 11 21:05 msdos.sys   
      
   ...and here's my Windows drive:   
       bash-4.1$ ls -al /mnt/windows/   
       total 983540   
       drwxrwxrwx  3 root root      16384 Oct 22 21:15 $AVG   
       drwxrwxrwx  9 root root      16384 Nov 12 02:20 .   
       drwxr-xr-x 12 root root       4096 Nov  8 02:06 ..   
       drwxrwxrwx 17 root root      16384 Oct 23 04:45 Ch   
       drwxrwxrwx 13 root root      16384 Oct 30 13:31 MStools   
       drwxrwxrwx 32 root root      16384 Oct 21 13:27 Program Files   
       drwxrwxrwx  2 root root      49152 Oct 22 02:58 Recycled   
       drwxrwxrwx 51 root root      32768 Oct 21 13:08 WINDOWS   
       -rw-rw-rw-  1 root root        188 Oct 22 01:21 boot.ini   
       -rw-rw-rw-  1 root root      47564 Apr 13  2008 ntdetect.com   
       -rw-rw-rw-  1 root root     250048 Apr 14  2008 ntldr   
       -rw-rw-rw-  1 root root 1006632960 Nov  9 08:51 pagefile.sys   
       drwxrwxrwx  8 root root      16384 Oct 21 13:12 users   
   (In Linux, 'ls -al' is equivalent to 'dir /a' in Windows.)   
      
   It's just a matter of knowing what to do, and having the patience to   
   actually do it. In short:   
   - partition   
   - install Windows   
   - copy boot files to Windows drive   
   - boot from DOS boot disk   
   - format c: /s   
   - install DOS   
   - install Linux   
   - install bootloader (I use lilo, but *almost* anything would work)   
      
   --   
   Once again, the spirit of the law falls victim to the letter of the law.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)