[Big-K]

I need windows on my computer. I've tried putting 98 on my slave drive, but that drive is only 1 gig. I have my master drive partitioned into my Linux Ext3, my Linux Swap, a VFAT sharing and leftover partitions. The leftover is about 14 gigs. What I want to do is get windows 98 or 2000 onto that leftover partition. My question is, is there any way to do that without reinstalling Slackware?

My first idea is drive imaging. I could make an image on an installation on another drive then move it onto the leftover partition. I'm not sure if this would work or not.

My second idea is to just install the OS directly onto it. My problem here is I'm not sure if I would be able to get LILO working again. Would I be able to just write LILO onto hda1? The leftover partion is on hda2, the linux ext3 is hda3. Hda1 is the share partition. Would windows write onto the MBR, making LILO unable to take back the booting? Would I be able to write LILO over windows stuff on the MBR?

I keep seeing that I should always install windows first, but I want to know if there's any way to do it the opposite way.

[lunchbox]

I havent tried this so im not sure whether it would work... BUT... there is an easy way to re-write lilo into the bootloader.

Install windows onto a separate partition, it will rewrite the MBR but all you need to do is insert your slackware cd and tell it to load the linux kernel manually. Then you can boot up to your linux installation, edit lilo accordingly and just run /sbin/lilo and you should be sweet.

[tdi_veedub]

lunchbox hit it. Install windows, then pop your slack cd in, boot from that by issuing the following command to boot your previously installed linux system.

vmlinuz root=/dev/hdxy noinitrd ro

where x = your drive, and,
y = your partition

example /dev/hda1 would be the first partition on the primary master disk.

Once you are booted into linux, just edit your /etc/lilo.conf (as root) to to include your new windows installation, then type lilo (also as root) to actually write the information to the Master Boot Record. Reboot, and all will be good.

[Big-K]

Awesome, thanks. I'll try it when I get the chance to install windows and post back.