Dual Booting Windows 7

I am assuming this is the dual boot for windows 7 thread? I have windows 7 installed and just bought a second drive. But i have not installed it. I am wondering if i should format it or not to ntfs? But since i want to try out Fedora 12 i am thinking i should leave it alone.

I was told in the past on this forum:


Just ensure when you Install Fedora on your new HDD that you use the advanced options when defining the bootloader and tell it to install grub

to the Fedora partition boot sector not to the MBR.The default action of a Linux install is to take over the boot by grabbing the MBR.

You must prevent that from happening if you want Windows to continue controlling the boot, unless you take the decision to use grub as
==So it sounds like if i let windows control the boot i let fedora boot loader install grub in the partition boot sector not to the MBR so that when i boot up i get a boot manager from windows 7 giving me the option of windows 7 or fedora?
.......
So the only question i have now is do i just install the new drive, reboot the pc put in the fedora dvd? into the dvd drive and tell it to install on the new drive with the info i presented above? I did read the post and the boot info but given i am new at this its a little confusing.

Andrew

your master boot manager and use it to boot Fedora and Windows. Read the sticky thread and follow the early links and you'll find loads

of information about how dual-booting works and tutorials about specific systems.
 
You should be fine installing Linux to a new HDD as long as you ensure to install grub to the Linux partition.
You could be extra safe if you want, because you have the luxury of a completely separate HDD, by disconnecting the old HDD while you install Linux to the new one. You can just let the Linux install default, and it can't touch Windows if it doesn't know it exists.
Then put the old HDD back, first in the boot sequence, and use the latest build of EasyBCD 2.0 to add an entry to the BCD for Linux.
 
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