How to boot in this way?

[Lain]

Okay i have a laptop, which has win xp, hope you guys can help me.

I want to install Linux mandriva on a Second Hard Drive i have connected via USB to me computer (2.0, so i think it won't be a problem)


The thing is: i want to be able to boot by default on windows.

without even having to choose /wait for which OS to boot.
for example my Laptop have an option in which you press a key during boot process to choose which drive to boot from (usb is supported actually)

The thing is, to manage this, i need to unplug, the HD i have inside my computer? (so the linux instalation wont modify my boot file?)

or what?

Also i have files on that second Hd can you tell me about a software to make a partition without losing this data?

In resume:

-I want to boot linux just by pressing a key to select which drive to boot from, and not to be asked everytime i boot the computer.

(how to do that)?

[rg3]

Hmm, quite a lot of things there. I'll try to sum up what I know. You can install Mandriva in the second hard drive without needing to do anything special about the boot process. The boot manager needs to be installed in the MBR of the boot disk, which is probably the one which has Windows now.

From there, the boot manager can boot Windows (from the same drive) or Linux (from the second drive). I'm not sure how to configure the boot manager so it behaves exactly how you say. Any LILO/Grub expert may provide more information about it. I use Grub and I know it can hide the boot menu and, still, wait a couple of seconds. That's what I do so it boots apparently directly to Linux but pressing Escape shows me a menu to choose. I also remember LILO having configuration options to be able to choose a boot option with just pressing a key, but I don't remember how.

About creating unpartitioned space in the second drive, I know many distributions (Ubuntu was the last one I heard about) allow you to resize NTFS partitions and FAT32 ones providing enough free space is available. I suppose Mandriva let's you do that too.

[NutWrench]

I tried Mandrake Linux a while ago and their latest version gives you a lot of boot choices. You can put Linux on your second hard drive and you can boot from the second hard drive.

You can also choose to install the bootloader on a floppy, if you want. That way, when you boot the computer normally, it boots straight to Windows and you don't even know Linux is there. If you boot with the floppy in the drive, it will start Linux for you.

Before you start fiddling with your boot sector or with 'boot.ini' make sure you have the tools to restore those files to their original condition. I recommend the Windows Ultimate Boot CD. (http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=software&Number=637898&Searchpage=1&Main=637456&Words=ultimate+boot+&topic=&Search=true#Post637898)