so for the record, if i make a root partiton on a spare drive and copy all the files over to mirror a normal drive, then set boot=/dev/hda (or whatever), run "lilo", swap the drives, and reboot my machine it will automatically boot on the new drive? In other words, setting "boot=/dev/sda" and running "lilo" is the equvilent of that question during install that askes where you would like to install the boot loader (which usually i pick /dev/sda)? Jason At 07:56 AM 11/21/00 -0600, you wrote: >Jason DeStefano wrote: >> >> If I'm understanding you right I think it sounds like the boot >> loader didnt get transferred to the raid partition. The boot loader >> is *usually* installed on the MBR of the boot drive (/dev/hda if its >> IDE). Without it, linux wont load. I dont think running lilo after >> changing the boot drive will install the boot loader to the MBR >> of the other drive. So when you pull your BusTek drive out you >> lose your boot loader on that drive's MBR and therefore it cant >> boot cause it doesnt exist on the new drive. > >Thanks for the reply. I had already written the MBR on the RAID, >and the RAID drive boots with no other *drives* in the system. What >the RAID drive won't do is boot without the BusTek card in the system. >Note that the BusTek card doesn't have any drives attached to it, it >is just in there for no reason (other than the fact that it magically >makes the RAID array boot...). > >Oh, to get lilo to write to any drive, change the directive > >boot=/dev/sda > >to whatever drive you want the MBR written to. (boot=/dev/sdb, etc...) > >> >> Unfortunately I dont know how to fix this (assuming this is your >> problem). I just know that I've had problems trying to boot off >> a drive that wasnt the orginal boot drive I installed to. My solution >> was to never create a situation where I had that problem. :) >> >> Beyond that, I'm clueless. :) > >Hey, that's the way it oughta be... >Kent > >