my machine right here has 1st primary /boot for linux boot info (remember lilo bugs?) 2nd primary partition with Win98boot 3rd primary is extended containing 3 logicals (swap, home and /) i am not sure exactly what role LILO plays here but here is my story and ill stick to it untill im proven wrong... windows needs to be _A_ primary partition in order to boot up, it also needs to be the only primary partition that is visible (not hidden) let me explain: the DOS boot loader (which windows uses as well) is stored on the MBR (not on the first primary partition, remember fdisk /mbr) DOS loader is so stupid that it can only select one partion to load and since it can only see FAT partitions it will just chose the first partition it can _see_ but if there is more than one primary FAT partition it gets confused and locks up wow, that is quite a rant dont you think? -munir --- Jason J <jasonj at innominatus.com> wrote: > DOS and windows will boot if there are more than one > primary partitions of any type. Its just that > dos/windows wants to be on the first primary > partition. NT and 2000 will boot fine from other > paritions. > > There can be a maximum of 4 partitions on a hard > drive. These 4 or made up of primary and extended > partitions. Typically 4 primary or 3 primary and > 1 extended. That extended partition can have > infinite (i am sure there is a max but i dont know > it) logical partitions. You can not boot from an > extended/logical partition. > > I believe as long as you have one parition that > contains boot information for the other OS's you can > get more than just 3 or 4 OS's on a box. > Though I have never even attempted a 5-Boot system. > I did have Win98, Win2000(unhidden FAT on a logical > partition), BeOS 5 and Debian (Swap drive > on logical partition) on one machine, but that got > old quick. Now its just Win2000 and Debian. > > Correct me if I am wrong please. > ===== -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.12 GAT GIT dpu- s:- a19 C++ UL P+ L+(++) E--- W+ N+ w(--) K? O-- M- V- PS+ PE-(--) Y-- PGP-(---) t 5+++ X R tv-- b+++ D++ DI++ G e+ h+() r- y+ UF++ ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/