HD Install :: Frugal & XP Dual Boot

OK... I'm playing with fire as I want to do a frugal install onto a partition that is on my corp notebook that has XP.

I've used partition magic to reduce XP's partition size (hda1), created a swap partition (hda2), a partition for frugal (hda3), and a partition for persistence and save/restore (hda4).

My question is, if I run the frugal install script and it writes over the current XP boot loader with Lilo, will it somehow trash my system??

Is there a way to do the frugal install so that I can keep the M$ boot loader?

Currently the boot.ini on the XP machine just looks like:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Can I manually copy what I need to the frugal partition and edit the existing boot.ini???

I've read about 50 posts on frugal install and maybe I missed it, but I didn't see where this question was specifically addressed.

Please help calm my fears of trashing this notebook and having to call IT to re-image....

The current frugal uses an embedded lilo and was designed primarily for dedicated compact flash / ide adaptor use. It can be used on a hard drive but I would NOT suggest it to play nicely with Windows, especially if you are talking a Corp. Notebook. Sorry, I am unable to provide any insight into Windows boot loader.

Thanks Roberts. Knowing what not to do is just as important as knowing what to do.

I have a new frugal/grub install script that *will* play nice with windows. It provides an easy frugal + grub bootloader installation. It is currently in beta testing. I will make an announcement when it completes the beta test cycle.

Also, you could use dsl-embedded if your windows machine is fast enough, except you will be limited to the use of the qemu virtual machine.

Also, you could copy the knoppix.iso and boot from cdrom using the various boot options to run from the hard drive. You might want to search the forum for this one. I believe cbagger wrote about it. I have not personally tried it. So, I don't know what if any limitations running it like that might present.

I had tried your last suggestion before you posted.

I did a tohd=/dev/hda3 and then booted from the CD but supplied a fromhd param. This works ok but you still have to have the CD everytime and I'd like to just boot from a normal multi-boot screen.

I'll wait for your frugal/grub to come out of beta and then try it out.

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