Background System: - Two physical hard disk - 120 GB (Windows XP with no partitions) - 40 GB (Windows XP with 30 GB allocated for Windows & 10 GB unallocated). I am trying to create a development environment (40 GB or 2nd drive) running both Windows XP and Linux but I seem to be having problems after the Linux installation. Immediately after the installation, I reboot my PC and it hangs. All I can see from the screen is the "GRUB" message. As much as possible I'd like to keep my 120 GB drive untouched as possible so when I do my installation I select only the 2nd drive (40 GB) as "allowable drives" when creating partitions using Disk Druid. I'd like to get your feedback on this item. I've already installed / reinstalled Widnows XP & Linux 3 times on my 40 GB drive (just trying different settings) and I seem to be going in circles. One more question: Should I be making changes to the boot.ini? My system current is working fine with dual boot XP on two different drives using boot.ini. Thanks in advance. -- Willie

Are you trying to set up a dual boot on the second (40 gig) drive with *both* Linux and XP? I've never been successful at this. I *can* help you set up a dual boot with Linux on one and XP on the other though. There are some tricks. --matty

whats the big deal in that? I have 3 hard drives and I have a linux system on the first, a linux system and a netbsd system and a freebsd system on the second and a linux rescue system on the third. I boot them all using GRUB. You do not need to change anything in windows. All you need to do is to set up your /boot/grub/menu.lst right. Type "man grub" for more info.

Matt, Eventually it will be a triple boot system. I am trying to have the menu setup as follows: Windows XP - Production (120 GB drive) Windows XP - Development (30 GB) Linux - Development (10 GB) Balram, I'll look at the grub some more.

Now using the floppy to boot Linux. Everything seems to be working fine. I would still welcome any suggestions on how to configure grub or boot.ini for the settings above (triple boot system) instead of using the floppy.

I have recently installed Mandrake Linux and Windows ME (dual boot)successfully. But I have no antivirus protection (mainly worried for ME). If I install Norton antivirus at this stage, will it run smoothly? Will it give problem for Linux OR when scaning boot sector? ====Pravin

ya it will probably think linux is some kind of virus :) basically you can boot as many systems you like, just add then entries in /boot/grub/menu.lst