This is recommended way to dual boot Linux and Windows XP or Windows 2000 for new user of Linux who might screwed up their Linux. When you install Linux, it will erase the Master boot record (MBR) and change it to point to linux partition which contain GRUB or LILO(both of them are Linux Boot Loader). Linux boot loader will handle the booting of Linux and other OSes. One problem with this is when you wanna delete you Linux you might encounter the problem where you can’t boot Windows anymore because MBR are pointing to GRUB or LILO which you have erased or it corrupted because you have set something wrong. One way to get through this is to use ntbootloader (default bootloader for windows). You can use ntbootloader to boot linux by changing the way it works. To know more detail on how to make use of ntbootloader to boot linux, please follow the steps provided:-**NOTE you can only do this when you are installing Linux. make sure that you install linux boot loader (GRUB or LILO) in the first sector of Linux Boot partition ( /boot ) or it wouldn’t work at all

Requirement:-

  • Windows XP Home or Professional Edition
  • Windows NT 4.0 or later
  • GRUB or LILO boot loader(any other Linux boot loader) must be installed in first sector of Linux Boot partition to do you have to change make you linux installation to install the boot information in you linux boot partition (/boot) not the MBR (**Very important)
  • A Linux Boot Disk

When you have all the above requirements then follow the instruction below :-

  1. Insert you Linux Boot Disk into floppy drive then boot your system.
  2. when you successfully boot into linux then launch a console.
  3. type in this command (without the” #”)

    # dd if=/dev/    hdaXX bs-512 count=1 of=/mnt/floppy/bootsect.lin
  4. hdaXX is your /boot partition. if your /boot partition is at /dev/hda10 then you must keyin

    # dd if=/dev/hda10 bs-512 count=1 of=/mnt/floppy/bootsect.lin

  5. bootsect.lin is the file name that you wanted to create in the floppy disk and you can use anyname you like. in this case i used bootsect.lin as my file name and i will use this name throught out this tutorial.
  6. the command above is copying the 1st sector of /boot partition and turn it into a file which then you store it in a floppy disk. (NOTE: you can copy it into floppy disk or any other location where windows can access it)
  7. Restart you Operating System into Windows.
  8. Copy the file bootsect.lin from the floppy disk to you C:\
  9. Then click Start\run and keyin this line
    c:\boot.ini
  10. Add thisline c:\bootsect.lin=”My Geek Linux” in boot.ini
    THIS IS HOW IT WILL LOOK LIKE IN BOOT.INI AFTER ADDING IT

    [boot loader]
    timeout=30
    default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
    [operating systems]
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect
    c:\bootsect.lin=”My Geek Linux”
     (This example that i use is Windows XP, if you use other versions of windows,it might be a little bit different)

  11. After that save the file and you can now boot into Linux using NT Bootloader
  12. You can now do anything you like to Linux and still be able to boot in Windows like normal