Is it possible to have 2 different boot switches for 2 different operating systems on your home PC, such as one for freeBSD and one for Windows?

Or, is it better to have unix on same drive with windows and partition the disk to boot unix system from Windows?

try searching the web for Dual Booting you can probably find some nice tutorials or check out these two sites and there forums


www.tweak3d.net
www.tweaktown.com

Yes, I have W98 WXP and RH on the same box.

Linux installs something called grub or lilo which will dual boot your computer. Essentially you get a menu and you choose which os you want to boot. I'm sure bsd has something like this - oh though I can't speak from experience as I've always ran it stand alone

You can definitely do it, and it's easy. Install the windows first (sounds like you're up to that point). run defrag.exe, or whatever your windows version calls the disk defragmenter. Insert first installation disk (at least RH and Mandrake will do this, I'd guess any of the major distros will), and repartition the drive. You SHOULD be able to keep all your data and windows progs in the process, but it'd be a good idea to back-up, of course. :)

Good luck!

Cirkit,

What your saying you can do is install windows and then install RedHat or BSD on the free space and it *should* be dual bootable then?

dbzgod

that's right. The Linux installers will let you partition your hard drive, and they come with bootloaders (either lilo or grub) that will pop up a little dialog to let you choose which one you want.

But like I said before, back up your existing windows install first, or at least any data that you value. There's some risk of screwing up your data in the process, especially since you haven't done this before.

Obviously you have to have a reasonable amount of free space on your hard drive still. The linux installer can't work miracles. :)

Simple. Grab a copy of RH and install it and grub/lilo will be your bootloader allowing you to choose between Windows 98/NT/XP or whatever and Linux. Just do a regular install of Linux and the Red Hat install will throw linux on the partition you specify. Good luck. Dual booting is fun! ;)

Just a personal preference, but I really hate Lilo and Grub is God awful garbage. Using a boot disk is a much better option IMHO

Originally posted by chrisb
Or, is it better to have unix on same drive with windows and partition the disk to boot unix system from Windows?

The preferrable method is to boot after power on post and not from windows - as it can leave your system unstable and in some instances, disabled. The most common method is to use lilo or grub. FreeBSD has its own boot loader. Either one is fine, but IMO, FreeBSD is the easiest to setup. There are also a number of commercial / freeware boot loaders too.

hornsmoker -

I am wanting to have freeBSD and Windows*. Would it be best to have the Operating Systems on separate hard disks?

*I haven't decided yet between running 2000 or XP.

Originally posted by chrisb
I am wanting to have freeBSD and Windows*. Would it be best to have the Operating Systems on separate hard disks? *I haven't decided yet between running 2000 or XP.

Separate is best if the two drives are equal. If they are not, put Windows / and the your nix of choice on your fastest disk and dual boot. If you're just experimenting, it really doesn't matter what you do - you'll probably nuke the unix setup many times anyway. As far as MS goes, get XP, disable everything and run it in classic mode. OEM XP is actually cheaper now [check ebay] and has a longer future - or you could just get an Apple with OSX and have it all rolled into one. :stickout

hornsmoker -

Ever thought about having Vmware running on Win2K, then just install another OS as a Vmware application.

Just an Idea.

Although does require a quite high spec system.

Chris Hopley

Hostone Services UK
accounts@mail-hostone.co.uk

VMware is fantastic software but it costs a whole lot of money, I believe around $300. What I believe you should do is partition your drive into two. Install Windows one of them and then install FreeBSD on to the other. Then using the FreeBSD boot loader, create a boot up which allows you to choose which operating system to use at boot time. If you aren't comfortable doing this, you might want to look at VMware.

Would it be more stable to put the 2 OS's on different hard drives rather than partition a drive?

Would the OS's also be more stable and less likely to interfere with each other if I had a separate boot button for each one? If so, what do I need in order to do that?