Sorin Srbu wrote: > Hi all, > > You know how I asked about procedures to build a dual-boot system with > CentOS and WinXP a while ago? Well, I I've begun with a test machine. > > What I had from start was a working CentOS 5.3 32b system. What I did was to > just add another empty drive configured as slave and then boot from the > Windows install cd. > > The most curious thing happened now, I get a blank screen after the Windows > installer screen saying something about "Setting up install procedure..." > just at the beginning. That is to say, this happens only if the hd with > CentOS is connected to power. If I disconnect the power connector to the > CentOS drive, the Windows installer happily goes on. > > Is this to be expected, that Windows won't install if it sees a hd with > another OS as master? > > Thanks for any hints. > It's a known issue - I've seen it affecting other distro's (Fedora in my case). It's a Windows XP thing, not specific to the distro, and only affects WinXP afaik (doesn't affect Win2K, couldn't care less about Vista). I first came across it trying to install WinXP on a system that had previously had Fedora on it and the installer hangs at a black screen. The "solution" is to do as you've done and disconnect the drive. If it's a single drive system, then install Windows first for dual booting, or if you just want to reinstall Windows over the top of a previous Linux installation then remove all Linux partitions with fdisk first.