Booting from mutliple OS

[mckennma 0]

I am planning on installing:

Suse 9.3 Pro AMD64

Fedora Core 4 AM64

Windows 2000 Pro

Windows XP Pro

 

I use Win2K Pro to be able to fix problems in XP Pro OS. So I usually give it a small area to just boot from. I want to start working with Suse 9.3 because I have my CNE. Fedora Core 4 will give me Redhat experience and I can get help from several friends, if I have problems.

 

Over the last weekend, was able to install Redhat 9 and Windows 2003 Server in dual boot on my test server. Here is my method. Will it work with Fedora Core 4.

 

Base hardware in workstation:

Tyan Thunder K8W

Dual AMD 240 Opterons

3GB DDR400 RAM

LSI Logic MegaRAID 320-2X PCI-X SCSI RAID controller

Adaptec 39160 for LVD tape drives, SCSI-UW CD-ROM, and SCSI-2 DVD-ROM

Visiontek Ti4600 GF4 video

Hercules GTXP 7.1 sound

Adaptec duoconnect USB2/FW controller for Plextor PX-708UF and PX716UF DVD burners

 

SCSI RAID 1: (34GB)

C: 100 MB FAT32 for common boot files of all operating system

/boot 100MB

/ 8GB

D: Windows 2000 Pro OS NTFS

 

SCSI RAID 1: (34GB)

E: 14 GB Windows XP Pro OS NTFS

 

SCSI RAID 10:(102GB)

F: Windows apps and games

 

SCSI RAID 0: (102GB)

S: 60GB NTFS XP Pro paging, all temp files

 

21 GB extended Linux partition for Suse 9.3

2 GB /swap Suse 9.3

reamining space for Suse 9.3 other directories

 

21 GB extended Linux partition for FC4

2GB /swap FC4

remaining space for FC4 other directories

 

Load order

Create C: parition and install Windows 2000 Pro

Install XP Pro

Install FC4

Install Suse 9.3

 

Using Grub for boot loader

 

Will this work?

 

e-mail me with questions or comments: mckennma@wideopenwest.com

 

Thank you for any help or comments,

 

Michael.

 

 

 

 

 

[mckennma 0]

It worked perfectly. I spread the Linux partitions across the four SCSI RAID arrays. I can boot into all three partitions. I did have to edit grub.conf to other to be Windows. I just logged in as root and made the change. The 100MB FAT parition and adding 100MB /boot partition on same array allowed everything to load. I manually configured all the paritions. First, Grub loads with both SMP FC4 AMD64 version, standard FC4, and Windows. In 20 seconds Windows boots as primary OS. Then, it switches to the Windows boot manager with XP Pro and 2K Pro. XP Pro is primary OS.

 

I hope this helps someone.