[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>
More information about the Techtalk
mailing list