Can anyone help with a problem I have with dual booting XP & Slax (A minimal slackware distro)
I have visited the Grub4Dos site downloaded the Grub4Dos file to the root of C:\ used the syntax C:\GRLDR="GRUB" in the XP boot.ini file & no luck when booting (I do Not want to install grub to the MBR by the way). When I boot I get a menu that has Windows XP & Grub listed, & the windows XP option still works thankfully but when selected but the Grub option spits out the following error message. I have installed a windows driver called Ext2IFS which allows XP to read/write to the Slax Partition & I have copied the Boot Folder & Slax folder off the distro CD to the EXT3 partiiton ready.
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Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
<Windows root> \system32\Hal.dll
Please re-install a copy of the above file? (However as said XP is still operable if that option is selected)
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I have now managed to setup my 2no hard drives in the following manner on a 2gig Ram Medion PC
Hard drive one (Serial-ATA 150gig)
1. Left a 3 gig un-allocated space on the front end of 1st Hard Drive before partition one) I have left this As I was thinking of situating the boot loader within this to separate from the XP & Slax partitions once I know for sure which boot loader I'm going to use if grub4dos proves a NO Go!
Hard Drive one (Serial ATA)
2. Partition 1 Hdd(1) = 87.6 gig formatted to NTFS containing XP Home
3. Partition 2 Hdd(1) = 58.4 gig formatted to Ext3 to hopefully accommodate Slax
Hard Drive two (Serial ATA)
4. Partition 1 Hdd(2) = 8 gig Fat32 partition called Swap for both XP & Slax
5. Partition 2 Hdd(2) = 225 gig partition called Store NTFS which holds portable programs general misc files etc.
The reason I have selected Slax (Minimal setup) is it is per-configured with Virtual Box as I would like try out other Linux OS systems
Is there another boot loader than I can use that is easier than Grub that does not require loading into the MBR?
Best regards,
eyespy