I have only recently started to use linux and had successfully managed to dual boot winME and RH7.1 and then win 2k and Redhat 7.1 after an OS upgrade(dont ask me how, i was surprised i managed to get it to work too).

Anyway, I recently upgraded my PC and aswell as adding a new hard drive, I formatted all the drives and dual booted winXp and win2k. Then using partition magic, i created a linux swap partition and an Ext2 partition.

Next I set about installing RH7.1 as i had done before I upgraded my hard drives and OS and the installation seemed to work correctly. I rebooted my PC and expected to see lilo start up to let me choose whether i wanted to Linux or either 'Dos'.

I have 120Gb of hard drive space, with the master a 40gb HD and the slave an 80gb HD. The c:\ is win 2k and the first primary partition on the slave is XP. Then I created a second primary partion with PM7 and created the aforementioned linux partitions. All the windows partitions are Fat32 as i wanted to be able to read files in RH7.1 and Windows.

As I have already explained, i am a novice with Linux and would appreciate it if someone could come to my aid and give me some advice about how to fix this problem. Thanks.

What happened when you booted up, which drive did you install linux on, and where did you tell the install program to install lilo?

What happened when you booted up?
The Pc displayed post screens and when immediately to dos dual boot screen (I dont know the correct name for it) where I can choose between Win XP or Win 2k. Choosing either option takes me into that OS.

Which drive did you install linux on?
I installed linux on the slave drive. As i already have win 2k up and running I used Partition Magic 7 to create two primary partitions. The first of these was formatted as Fat32 and the second formatted as linux ext2 partition. Finally i created a linux swap partition. Then I installed win Xp to the first primary partition and when this was finally configured correctly, i set my mind to installing RH7.1.

Where did you tell the install program to install lilo?
During the instalation process I think I installed lilo to '\' or '\boot' on the linux partition. I did this as i had read somewhere that NT4/win2k mbr and Linux dont like each other and I was worried that one would damage the other. I have a feeling that is where i made my error. How can i alter the mbr to allow me to boot these OS?

Thanks for the help, like i said in my last post, i am new at this and need a lot of help. I have been searching other sites and there seems to be very little info on 'tri-booting' 3 OS' like this.

Thanks

It appears that it's probably the win2k boot loader that is showing up when you boot up. To see if that is correct, you'll have to take a look at the boot.ini file in win2k. The file is hidden so you'll have to unhide it. Go here and then scroll down to ' Windows2000 Boot Procedure ' and follow the directions to unhide it. This page also tells you how to add linux to the win2k boot loader. After you unhide the file, load it into text editor and see if it has a line that has ' xp ' in it. If it does, then it's win2k's boot loader that's starting up.

Like I said before, you can add linux to win2k's boot loader. Did you make a boot disk when you installed linux? You need to get into linux to be able to add it to win2k's boot loader. If you can get back into linux, you can follow the instructions on the page I gave you and add linux to win2k's boot loader.

Why would you ever want to dual boot win XP and win 2k ????

Just in case you have an OS fetish. Or if you are running a tech support type operation. Or if your buddies are all running one OS and you want to look like you are as cool as they are. There are about a billion lame reasons why. I use to dual boot 98 and 98SE just to be cool and say I had a dual boot system.

whatever makes you happy

Why dual boot win XP and 2k?

Why not?

The reason is down to winXP itself and some of the programs it cant run (eg easy cd creator 5 platinum). I am a student and some of the programs I am required to run to prepare work for uni cant run on XP even when i use the compatibility mode (pile of *&$te) and upadtes arent avialable for them, so i thought it perphaps best to keep 2k on the system.

I know i could have dual booted win9.x or ME but why downgrade after using win2k? It is far superior in my view to those OS' I listed above.

Hope that gives you an explantion of why I dual booted two almost identical systems.

ok, if that's your reason, I understand, but I always thought that all programs that worked in 2k, work in XP. The only problems should be with programs from 9x or even older windows/dos versions.
And even with those programs I haven't had any trouble. The compatability mode worked fine in those cases.
But who am I to condemn someone on which OS's he likes to use.

So, be happy with your multiboot system and don't listen to silly me anymore