• Redhat/Win2k Dualboot •

This How-To will assume that you have installed Redhat linux once before,
you have installed win2k once before, and that all your data has been backed up.
If your data is not backed up, do NOT follow this How-To.

Update: I've found a similar but better method of doing this. The unfortunate
detail is that I need to test it a second time before committing to the procedure
Follow the first set of directions, and if they don't work, try the ones below the
horizontal line.

You will need:
I formerly had an older set of directions on this website which instructed
the reader to use Windows as the boot loader. While this is useful
under some conditions, I do not recommend it. These instructions use Grub
as the boot loader, and you'll find them to be far simpler and more efficient
than the previous. FYI: Step #1 depends on your personal taste. If your drive
is big enough, you could also just do swap, one large linux partition, and one large
windows NTFS partition.

  1. Use Windows installation CD to partition the drive into four partitions:
    >=2.5gb (to become /dev/hda2 windows OS)
    >=1.5gb (to become /dev/hda1 - linux OS)
    >= amount of memory (to become /dev/hda3 - swap)
    any size (to become /dev/hda4 - large fat32 partition for both OS's)
  2. Format the windows OS partition with NTFS, and leave the rest unformatted (or in fat32)
  3. Install Windows on the partition you made for it
  4. Insert Linux CD, and you may need to individually remove and recreate the remaining two or three partitions. Just do them one at a time to keep things simple. If you didn't already do it, you may choose to format your "large fat32" partition at this point as well.
  5. When it comes time to choose, select the GRUB boot loader. Grub will detect the preexisting windows installation and automatically offer to add it as a boot option. You want to install the boot loader on the MBR.
  6. Boom. Should be done. As previously mentioned, I don't know for sure if my memory on these steps is accurate enough. I do know, however, that I've seen Grub work where Lilo failed.


The alternative directions if the ones above fail:
  1. Use linux installation CD to partition the drive into four partitions:
    /dev/hda1 = linux
    /dev/hda2 = windows 2000
    /dev/hda3 = swap
    /dev/hda4 = large fat32 partition for both OS's
  2. Install linux on hda1, and install lilo on the MBR.
  3. Using windows 2000 installation CD, delete the hda2 partition and recreate it. Install windows on that.
  4. Boot off of linux floppy, and add this to the end of /etc/lilo.conf:
    other=/dev/hda2
    label=win
  5. run the command: /sbin/lilo
That's it. These directions aren't nearly as detailed as the previous ones.
When I get a chance, I'm going to expand this to include the specifics of
the previous page.