[Techtalk] Installing XP without affectin Linux

David Sumbler david at aeolia.co.uk
Wed Apr 1 22:45:00 UTC 2009


On Thu, 2009-04-02 at 00:30 +0200, Chris Wilson wrote:
> Hi David,
> 
> On Wed, 1 Apr 2009, David Sumbler wrote:
> 
> > From installing XP Pro in VirtualBox I get the impression that perhaps
> > it is not so greedy or arrogant as 95 and 98 were - but obviously I
> > don't want to find out by experiment if my impression is wrong!  So does
> > anyone know if I would be able to install WinXP Pro in the spare
> > partition without messing up my Ubuntu partitions or making Ubuntu
> > unbootable?
> 
> It is possible to do it. Windows NT-based operating systems have a better 
> partition manager in the installer that lets you choose which partition to 
> install on, and won't wipe your Linux partition without you giving it 
> explicit instructions to do so (do not select your linux partition as the 
> install partition for Windows!)
> 
> However, installing Windows will replace the master boot record (MBR), 
> making Linux unbootable. You can fix this by using a rescue disk for your 
> OS, or Knoppix, to mount the Linux filesystem after you install Windows, 
> and run grub-install to rewrite the Linux boot loader, but it is a bit 
> hairy. These instructions may help:
> 
> http://linux.derkeiler.com/Newsgroups/linux.redhat.misc/2003-12/0159.html
> 
> (I haven't tested them).

Thanks for that information.  I'll give it a try, once I have done the
necessary backups.  The grub bit sounds the scariest!

David

-- 
David Sumbler <david at aeolia.co.uk>



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