I'm trying to dual boot with Windows XP and Gentoo Linux. I have a 40 gig HDD, and i'm planning to set the partitioning for dual boot as /dev/hda1: Windows /dev/hda2: /boot (32M) /dev/hda3: swap /dev/hda4: the rest I was wondering, do I leave the boot * on hda1 with windows or do I change it to /dev/hda2? Thanks.

The MBR will go on your disk anyway. If you're asking about which OS to default to when the OS selection times out, you can set that in your boot loader.

The windows partition (/dev/hda1) should be the one marked as bootable.
The purpose of the boot flag is to help DOS/Windows figure out whats going on.

This is how mine looks:

/dev/hda1 - Stupid Dell partition (no idea what it is, but it came with the computer and I don't dare remove it ;)

/dev/hda2 - Linux (Bootable) (25 Gigs)

/dev/hda3 - Linux Swap (250 MB's)

/dev/hda4 - NTFS (Bootable) (10 Gigs)


Just make sure your linux partition and your windows partition is bootable. I use LiLo which sets itself up automatically (assuming you've done everything else correctly, of course).

As an afterthought, it might be worth it to make ntfs fat32 instead so linux has write access to the windows partition. Maybe I'll do that someday...

Quote: Original post by ontheheap
Just make sure your linux partition and your windows partition is bootable.

The linux partitions don't have to be flagged as bootable. In fact, IIRC there really should only be one partition marked as boot. Not that it particularly matters that tremendously much, as I don't think anything modern uses the boot flag for anything.

Quote: Original post by ontheheap
This is how mine looks:

/dev/hda1 - Stupid Dell partition (no idea what it is, but it came with the computer and I don't dare remove it ;)

Odds are it contains your system recovery tools. Nowadays, instead of shipping you separate CDs with Windows, drivers, and all the other applications they preinstalled on your machines, they do put it all on a partition on your HD. If you do execute the setup program that is there, you'll return your system to its factory configuration. With luck, there also are data recovery tools on there. [rolleyes]

Fruny: You were right. The Dell partition also contains information needed by the System Restore disk in order to run correctly. Apparently it isn't actually needed, and if removed can be replaced using the dell operating system cd. Interesting...

Drakonite: Are you sure? (genuine question, I'm not being an ass)

Edit: what the heck does "I'm not be an ass" mean, lol

[Edited by - ontheheap on October 15, 2004 9:24:50 AM]

The DOS MBR used the boot flag to determine which partition to boot off of, so it's still important for Win9x. I'm certain if NT pays attention to it or not.

Sorry to go OT, but does anyone know how you're expected to use the recovery partition? Assuming it's a system with just that partition and one windows partition, how are you supposed to boot to recovery partition if windows breaks?

I have a PC like that (a HP), but I don't remember any of the stuff that came with it telling me what to do (in fact I didn't even know it existed until I was messing round with partition magic one day)

I have a similar setup. I highly suggest going with the layout you gave in the first post. 32M is a good size for boot. Swap should be 512-1024.

Just one thing: Install windows first.
Really. You're going to end up pulling your hair out if you don't. Windows doesn't like to play nice, and so will step on the toes of any other OS already there.