Questions about Bootloaders, updating, installing and managing
Hi, I am planning on setting up solaris 8, Linux mandrake (or redhat dunno,) along wth my Windows xp professional installation, XP is already installed.
What I wanted to know is specifics on bootloaders. I know Mandrake has one that is loaded when you install it when a windows installation is already on the hard drive. What I want to know is ways of accessing, manipulating and saving that bootloader for when I install another system over it (like solaris, or windows 98 for arguements sake).
<correct me if I am wrong here>
from what I know, once you install an os, that os overwrites the bootloader (lets say I install linux first, then Winxp, winxp would overwrite the bootloader linux installed before. What I need to know is how to install multiple os's using the mandrake bootloader that gets installed when I install linux.
Are there specific install directions or orders when installing os's (winxp is already installed).
Would I have to reformat partitions for linux to use (or can linux/solaris) be used under NTFS.
Is there a way to create a bootloader boot disk (if thats even a word). So that I can reinstall a bootloader, tell it where each installation of each os is (lets say it gets corrupted for some strange reason).
What if one of my os's gets corrupted and I need to reinstall, how would I do that without overwritting the bootloader. And also how would I tell the bootloader that there is a new os at this place.
Thanks for the information and have a nice day.
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