Ot:win2k install issues

[Doug]

Alex,

Win2k uses the NT boot loader (ntldr). This loader can
handle multiple boots itself. My systems are set up to
be triple boot DOS, Win2k, and linux. The NT loader
displays a menu to select DOS or windows, and Win2k
saves boot sectors for each of those.

There might be a problem with NT loader. Did you change
the "bootable" flag in the partition configuration? I
think that windows wants only one partition to be
flagged as bootable. Win2k will put the NT loader there.
It doesn't have to be the win2k partition. On my system,
it places NT loader in the DOS partition.

So my questions would be these:

1) If you look at the partition info, which partition
    is marked as bootable? Is there only one?

2) Do a search for the file boot.ini. This is the menu
    that NT loader uses. You can edit this menu to add
    or change new bootable images. You can even add
    linux if you copy the boot sector over to the
    windows partition and refer to it in boot.ini.

3) What is sitting in your master boot record?
    Is it LILO? Or is LILO loaded in the super block
    of your linux partition?

It is normal for Win2k to require the reboot. It does
an initial phase where it selects a kernel, copies
some temp files over, saves some config info, then
asks you to reboot. On the next boot, it should run
NT loader, and should proceed with the install. But
it has to find and load the NT loader. On my system
I had to add that to LILO, because LILO sits in the
MBR (master boot record).

If LILO is in the MBR, then what did you put in the
lilo.conf for windows? On my system, I don't refer
to the Win2k partition, because NT loader is not
there, it's in the DOS partition. Perhaps Win2k put
the ntloader in the Win98 partition. Search for the
files boot.ini and ntldr. Make sure your boot loader
points to the partition where these reside. I hate
to say it but win2k isn't that bad ...

   -- Doug