Hi, I have two 20 Gb hard drives; Windows XP is installed on the second partition of the first drive (the first partition is swap). Linux is installed on the first partition of the second drive (/dev/hdc1). I am able to boot into Linux using a floppy, I am unable to boot into Linux using the NT boot loader. I created a bootsector file using the dd command in Linux and I've put this file on the Windows XP partition. Boot.ini is pointing to it. Lilo is installed on /dev/hdc1. When I try to boot into Linux using the NT boot loader, the system complaints about not being able to find the hal32.dll. What is going on ? Thanks for your help, Eric

Why don't you just put LILO on the MBR and use it to boot Linux and XP? NT keeps all the boot data on the partition boot record, so LILO on the MBR won't cause any problems.

I know that Lilo won't cause any problems, I just want to know why I get this specific error message. The "missing hal32.dll" has nothing to do with Linux, that's why I'm so curious. I can always install Lilo on the mbr later, but that's not the point. Cheers, Eric

SuSE 8...good choice. I agree with the other reply. Let Linux do the booting. You probably know that the HAL is a small bit of code that sits at the 'bottom' of the XP architecture and is responsible for hardware relationships. It can be changed to allow an upgrade to 64bit without having to reinstall everything. (Don't try this at home!). I don't know exactly what you have done (only what you describe), but my advice is not to put any Linux files, or attempt to put, any into a windows file system. There are incompatible issues. The simplest and most effective deal is to follow the advice on havinf Linux control the boot. In your case this might mean sorting your MBR. I don't doubt your skills or knowledge. But take care with the MBR, you could find that nothing will boot if you get too invasive. Best practice says....seperate hard drives all to themselves. Best of luck Robb

Hi all, Thank you very much for your replies; eventually I did install Lilo on the mbr so I still don't know what this error message is about. I saw some other posts with the same content, nobody seems to have the answer... Anyway, thanks again. Eric