Setting up a dual-boot system by tweaking the Windows boot loader
Another tip from 
Gary:
Yes - and no.
Assuming you have the Linux loader installed in the first sector of 
hdb1, you use
  dd if=/dev/hdb1 of=bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1
to make a copy of the boot sector. Then you copy bootsect.lnx to C:\ and 
append the line
  C:\bootsect.lnx = "Linux"
to your C:\boot.ini - which should result in a boot menu offering both 
Windows and Linux.
On Tue, 22 Feb 2005, Petre Scheie wrote:
>> I still have plans in the back of my mind for installing Linux on my 
>> dad's Dell-with-XP-Home machine.  That was the one I wrestled with, with 
>> your help, trying to get it to boot from the floppy disk and then run 
>> from the Mandrake installed on hdb.  I came across the article below, 
>> which is attempting a similar thing, of making a dual-boot system 
>> without disturbing the Windows installation.  In this case, the author 
>> uses the NT loader to present the boot menu.  To do so, the author 
>> describes making a boot file using dd and the boot sector of the linux 
>> disk as the input.  Would this have worked in what I was trying to do 
>> last year?  The article says to only copy the first 512 bytes, so the 
>> resulting file must just be a pointer to hdb1, right?
>> 
04/25/2005