Bootloader won't install with Red Hat 9

[Surge1243]

I'm trying to install Red Hat 9 on my laptop and am doing a dual-boot with Windows XP. I used to have Mandrake 9.1 installed but decided to uninstall and go with Red Hat instead. However, for some reason a bootloader won't install. I opt to do automatic partitioning (I've reserved about 4 gigs for Linux) and chose LILO as the bootloader the first time. Installation completed, rebooted the computer, and it simply loads Windows. I've done this three times and have tried installing both LILO and GRUB and neither will install correctly. Any thoughts?

[kilgoretrout]

Make sure you are installing the boot loader to the mbr. There are several options to select but the mbr one is the correct one. Do not install it to your linux partition.

[Surge1243]

What does it install in by default?

[Floppyman]

I'm thinking it might have installed on the same partition you installed Linux on....but your mbr resides on your windows partition I believe. HTH

[natebo]

LILO does not work with NTFS very well, and is a somewhat older version, grub should work very well. But during install, you should have opted for manual partition, and set it up manually. Or you can use a third party booting program such as boot magic, that is what I use and have no problems. You can use lilo as your linux booting prog and install lilo to root. that way you don't mess with windows whatsoever. Boot magic tells your computer which way to look when it boots. I highly recommend it.

[Surge1243]

Well LILO worked just fine when I was running Madrake 9.1, but for some reason it won't work here. I'll try installing Red Hat again and look carefully at all the options instead of letting it do everything automatically. If it still doesn't work I'll look into Boot Magic...thanks for the suggestion!