w2k/u7.10 dual-boot

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Sat, Feb 09, 2008 at 01:04:55PM -0500, chris-n/jUll39koHNgV/OU4+dkA at public.gmane.org wrote:
> Okay, I was able to install a u7.10/W2K dual-boot on another computer, So, 
> now I know it can be done. Hard drive failure seems unlikely as I am able 
> to install either OS on the drive, just not both at the same time. I'm 
> wondering if it's the hard drive *model* that's a problem. I had the same 
> problem on two identical hard drives - they are WD 160 GB drives. The other 
> thing is that maybe my motherboard/BIOS doesn't like this dual-boot 
> scenario. 

Or you have a faulty CPU, ram, power supply, or whatever else can cause
odd problems.  Or maybe there is a buggy driver.

> Would it be worth trying taking the hard drive, installing the dual-boot on 
> the computer an which the dual-boot installation works, then remove the 
> hard drive and re-install the hard drive (not the OS) on the computer I 
> want it on? Obviously some drivers and things will change as the hard drive 
> will now have a new computer home. Is that even worth trying? 

Windows doesn't like being moved between machines since it will probably
be missing a bunch of drivers.

> In the meantime I'll ask the tech at Krazy Krazy (where I bought the hard 
> drives) if there is anything about these hard drives that he can think of 
> that would cause a problem dual-booting. 

I certainly can't think the harddrives have anything to do with it.

> I have had other dual-boot (linux/Windows) installations on the computer I 
> want this on, so I know the motherboard/BIOS doesn't reject dual-boots as a 
> rule - but this one scenario or this one hard drive model is a problem... 

It sounds like a software problem or possibly defective other part (of
which the harddisk is not one I would suspect).

I still wouldn't use FAT32 for the windows install.  I would make it
NTFS, and then make a seperate data partition using FAT32 for sharing
data.  At least that way any corruption of the FAT32 partition won't
affect booting windows, at worst you have to copy back the data you were
trying to share.

--
Len Sorensen
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