They are many documents on the web for doing that. However most of them needs to have an installed linux based system to do that. Installing linux without destruction your harddisk is possible for years. I assume that you have windows installed. Here is the walkthrough to do that.
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Allocate space for linux partition. The main partition for linux has to be primary partition just like your windows partition. You might need a partition tool to resize and change partition type to do that operation.
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Install linux on the partition that you have just created. On the installation screens, for the boot loader, select the partition itself as the partition (don’t select mbr). When the installation has finished, your computer restarts and windows will be restarted. Don’t be afraid linux is somewhere in your disk.
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You need dd for windows to set linux to the boot manager.
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Extract the contents of dd in a folder and run
dd --list
D:Toolsdd>dd –list
rawwrite dd for windows version 0.3.
Written by John Newbigin [email protected]
This program is covered by the GPL. See copying.txt for details
Win32 Available Volume Information
.Volume{c5d941f0-8093-11da-b7d7-806d6172696f}
link to ?DeviceHarddiskVolume1
fixed media
Mounted on c:
.Volume{c5d941f1-8093-11da-b7d7-806d6172696f}
link to ?DeviceHarddiskVolume3
fixed media
Mounted on d:
.Volume{5c5aa360-7406-11da-b7c2-806d6172696f}
link to ?DeviceCdRom0
CD-ROM
Mounted on e:
.Volume{23c0e842-75dd-11da-a45d-000e3536c876}
link to ?DeviceCdRom1
CD-ROM
Mounted on x:
NT Block Device Objects
?DeviceCdRom0
?DeviceCdRom1
?DeviceHarddisk0Partition0
link to ?DeviceHarddisk0DR0
Fixed hard disk media. Block size = 512
?DeviceHarddisk0Partition1
link to ?DeviceHarddiskVolume1
?DeviceHarddisk0Partition2
link to ?DeviceHarddiskVolume2
Fixed hard disk media. Block size = 512
?DeviceHarddisk0Partition3
link to ?DeviceHarddiskVolume3
?DeviceHarddisk0Partition4
link to ?DeviceHarddiskVolume4
Fixed hard disk media. Block size = 512
to find the linux partition.
- Once you think you’ve found it just use this command to generate the boot file.
dd if=?DeviceHarddiskVolume2 of=linux.boot bs=512 count=1
D:Toolsdd>dd if=?DeviceHarddiskVolume2 of=linux.bot bs=512 count=1
rawwrite dd for windows version 0.3.
Written by John Newbigin [email protected]
This program is covered by the GPL. See copying.txt for details
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
Here Partition2 is the linux partition. You need to feel that from the dd –list output
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Move the generated file to the root C:
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Then add
C:LINUX.BOOT="Linux"
to boot.ini file.
Vista Update
The above process is still working for Windows Vista beside boot.ini file. Instead we need to bcdedit to add the new entry.
Run cmd and execute the following commands to add the linux entry
bcdedit /create /d “Linux” /application BOOTSECTOR
bcdedit /set {LinuxID} device boot
bcdedit /set {LinuxID} PATH LINUX.BOOT
bcdedit /displayorder {LinuxID} /addlast
bcdedit /timeout 5
Here you are you have used windows boot manager to do that inside windows.
