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suse 9.1 & win xp installed on separate hd's - - - how to set up dual booting?

currently, i have suse 9.1 pro installed on an 80 gb hd which is wired as master on the primary ide line as well as win xp pro on a 12 gb hd wired as slave on the primary ide line (lite-on cdrom is master and zip drive is slave on the secondary ide line).    either os boots fine provided i shut down properly  and it is the only os/hd plugged in  ---  would prefer not having to go thru the tedium of dis/re-connecting to change os's.  i hope to learn linux thoroughly but am still very much a newby (with brain injury) so it would be most helpful if a,b,c directions were offerred (prefer firefox for webwork but would prefer to retain windows 'til i have learned linux  --  not successful yet downloading and installing rpm programs in suse but getting closer  --  haven't yet succeeded even with tutorials but am committed to open source software for the long run).    also, my computer -- leftside --  shares an officejet with  -- rightside  (usb for leftside,  printer cable for rightside) as well as wireless isp ethernet connections,  both hardwired to a lanskys router  ---  so planning to set up desktop sharing as well as adding a 3rd box with just win xp and limewire plus a 4th box for speech recognition software  --  dns  --  .    tutorial for efficient dual booting?  really want to make this work so please don't make the mistake of thinking i understand basic abc's of linux.    thanks so much!!
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i really would prefer hds set up complete with os/data/software partly so there is less potential for data/software/etc corruption (especially with speech recognition programs).   have checked out lots of forums and found many different responses for dual booting linux/winxp but really prefer to switch hds without having to go thru actual hardware changes  ---  know it is possible but not exactly how!  thanks,  newby with newsynapse connections.
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thanks!    am going to remap the hds using grub and see where that leads  -  -  -  another typical global warming morning here in the finger lakes region.
Where are you located? I'm probably pretty close to you (Rochester, NY).
no dual booting yet  ...  i've tried grub commands  as map (hd0) (hd1) etc., and as map (hda) (hdb) but get the same note from bash either way: syntax error near unexpected token 'hd0' or 'hda'.  i'm obviously not doing something correct to swap the 2 drives  ...  i'll disconnect the bios/circuit board battery and see if discharging makes a difference  ...  $S sure is picky  ---  regards.
When do you get the "bash" error? Your shell should not see these commands. They are supposed to go into the Grub configuration file. Please post your complete menu.lst file.
did not understand about the grub configuration file but will look now and attempt posting back.    thanks so much  ...  
The two lines have to go into the section for Windows in /boot/grub/menu.lst
i'll give that a shot  ---  thanks for quick reply, regards   ...
went out to pick frui and will try again after dark this pm but no luck/skill yet at finding /boot/grub/menu.lst.     CHEERS  ...
khkremer  ---  might help if u went even more abc for me.  if u get a chance,  thanks.
finally found /boot/grub/menu.list  ---  hope to figure it out from there  ...  still raining out.    regards
You need something like this in your menu.lst file:

title Windows
    map (hd0, hd1)
    map (hd1, hd0)
    rootnoverify (hd1,0)
    chainloader +1

You may have to adjust the rootnoverify line, depending on which partition your Windows is installed on.
thanks   --   haven't gotten past the file lock yet, i'm administrator, but will try again this evening  ...  THANKS
using YAST then the Boot Loader Configuration module it looks as if i could re-configure the 2 hds there however only the hd with linux is wired in at that point - windows takes over if i wire in the 2nd hd even if the machine is hot with linux as the os on the hd0 hd.    ? is. do i need both hds running to enable reconfiguration of the hds/linux, windows, etc.    i'll continue trying to re-configure /boot/grub/menu.lst  file thru a different vein,  my sense is that both hds/oss must be hardwired to enable this procedure.    thanks and best regards  ...
Your Windows drive is probably setup as the master, so when you hook up both drives, the system will boot from the first (Windows) drive. You may have to change the order of your hard disks as your BIOS sees them.

If you have both drives hooked up to one IDE controller, you need to either swap the master/slave settings, or change swap the position of the hard disks as they are connected to the cable. (which one to use depends on how your drivers are jumpered: If you are using CS (cable select), you need to change the order of the drives on the cable, otherwise you need to change the master/slave configuration).

If both drives are hooked up to different controllers, you need to swap the cables on them.
both hds are to the same ide controller so i'll try swapping the master/slave jumpers first  ..  this may take awhile as i'll have to google for correct settings for the 12gb quantum hd.    thanks so much and have fun today!
The jumper description is usually printed somewhere on the case.
yes  ---  settings show master/slave/cs on hd case but have 8 pins to choose from instead of 6 so it is unclear to me what's what, been unable to figure out that part for months although it is crystal clear on other hds i play with so fell back to using the default values on the primary ide cable and switched hds.   with both hds connected, neither would boot  ...  with the hd/winxp removed and the linux/hd installed on the slave position on the primary ide cable, linux booted right up.   when both hds were  installed, winxp tried but couldn't seem to make it,  perhaps it would be different if both hds had the correct master/slave jumpers?    whew!
disconnected linux hd and re-connected winxp hd on the business end of the primary ide cable  ...  winxp finally booted up.    i have hooked up the circuitboard battery again (bios ?) or could erase cmos or just wait 24 hours with 110v unplugged/no battery to give time for complete circuitboard discharge/settings erase?
now have winxp hd configured as master, linux hd as slave on primary ide line.  should still change /boot/grub/menu.lst or anything else?    what should be methodology for dual booting/win to linux or linux to win ?
You can do both, but for booting with Grub, you need to have your Linux drive configured as Master, and the Windows drive as Slave (at least with your current configuration, otherwise you need to reconfigure your Linux system). You can also use it the other way around, and use the Windows boot loader, but I would continue with what you've started so far, and just reconfigure the hard disks.
?  are we back 2 square 1 now?  linux hd as master with winxp hd as slave both on the primary ide cable but i should use the map commands with grub and try to figure that out?   --   with both hds connected winxp takes over regardless if slave or master whereas the winxp hd doesn't show up at all if only linux hd is installed  ...
If XP is on the second disk (slave), and you boot off the first hard disk, Windows cannot take over: The Windows boot loader should never be called.

I thought the whole idea was that you wanted to use Grub to boot both systems. Let's take one step back: When you installed Linux. Did you have the XP disk connected?
when i installed linux the 2nd hd was not connected  --  i tried to learn some linux for july/august then recently installed the 12 gb hd in the slave position on the primary ide cable and installed winxp after removing the linux/hd from the master position on the primary ide cable.    don't really care whether dual booting works thru win or linux but would prefer having an intact hd for linux and another for winxp.    thanks for taking the time and making the effort!  best regards.
will check back again tomorrow after i help set up at the ithaca farmers market in the morning.
just got back from ifm setup, printing some more cider labels then taking them back to steamboat landing/ifm so will check here again in a couple of hours or this evening.      i
another thought - off subject  ---  as i said before i would like to use some of the software i collected over the years that runs on windows hence separate hds/oss hoping to fine tune them with use, understanding and focus. limewire is one program i have not been able to install in linux yet but easily in xp the same for accuweather pro and most importantly is my current speech recognition program (dragon naturally speaking) however i was able to easily download and install thunderbird and firefox (the burning edge) on winxp even though i've tried for many days without success to disinstall 0.8 before installing 0.9 firefox  --  it's interesting that win makes some things so easy and others so convoluted.    the upshot is that i and others need both oss at least for awhile so i would prefer being able to dual boot in some fashion separate hds/oss
OK. Let's take a step back.

When you installed Windows, you only had one drive installed (or, the Windows drive was the first drive)
When you installed Linux, you only had one drive installed (the "other" drive).

This means, that both operating systems are installed in a way that they expect to be on the first drive. The Windows boot loader does not support the virtual drive swapping that Grub support, so if you want to use the Windows boot loader, you have to reconfigure your Linux system (this is not very complicted, but you need to make sure that you catch all instances where a partition name (e.g. /dev/hda1) is used). You don't have to do anything for Windows in this case because Windows is already on the first disk.

Grub does support the swapping of disks, so you can leave Linux on the first disk, and give Windows access the the swapped disks. This way, Windows will also see it's partition on the (now virtual) first disk. In this case, you don't have to do anything for both Linux or Windows.

Your setup should be as follows: Linux on the first disk, setup as master. Windows on the second disk, setup as slave. When you install your drives this way, which operating systems can you boot?

i have linux on the primary ide in the default (master) position.    xp is on the primary ide cable in the default (slave) position.    for several weeks either drive would boot provided the other hd was not connected (slave/xp or master/linux).    right now the xp/hd/slave will boot as has been but not the linux/hd/master.    i installed linux in early july on the only hd on the system in the master position on the primary ide, i installed xp several weeks ago again on the only hd in the system  -  in the slave position on the primary ide cable (linux/hd/master position was disconnected).   i don't know why i did it this way.       best regards and thanks
Connect _ONLY_ your Linux drive, and boot the SuSE install CD. When you get the boot configuration selection, go to "Rescue System". This will bring up a terminal session, logged in as root user. Now run the following command:

fdisk /dev/hda

Once the program is running, type "p" to print the partition table. Can you please list here which partitions you have (it's not necessary that you copy all data, just the name, the size (that's the "blocks" number) and "System" (or type) information.
i will do, or try to do, everything u listed but i'll have to wait 'til this evening (91404-pm).  thanks so much and high regards,  james
i blew it again.   deleted linux from 80gb hd (master-primary ide), decided to go with it  -  re-installed winxp and now adding other win programs.  will install suse 9.1 on the 12gb hd (slave-primary ide).  would that make dual booting any more practical?    after losing suse again i have finally realized that the learning linux curve is going to take me much longer than anticipated so it might well be appropriate that it is on the 12gb slave hd.    should i be asking another question for this forum?  regards, james
Yes, this will make it a lot easier: The installer will detect your Windows partition, and will add this to the boot configuration.
THANKS!!