I have a 200GB Hard Drive that I installed XP Professional on and I was wondering what the EASIEST way (if it's possible) to have it dual boot with Fedora Core 4? I'd really like to use GRUB if that's possible but all ive been able to use so far is LILO which I don't I really don't like.

And obviously my Windows Partition cannot be modified or ruined when i install FC4.

Really, use the search on the forums to find what you're looking for. I've seen many many threads which advice, give clue on, point to and help you out with this matter: "windows (add-here-version) and linux (add-here-distro) dual boot".

I myself use grub, and have used for long, and it's been very successful. I only remember using LILO twice for it and it was much more complicated and uncertain than with Grub ever. The size of the HD doesn't really matter (as long as you can fit the two in, which is much less than 200 gigs, really), nor the Windows version, nor the Linux distribution. It's just what you do.

Use the search and you'll get the answer written ready. To cut it short: use QTparted or PartitionMagic or similar app to shrink your Windows drive(s) so you get free space. Install Linux on free space. Install Grub to MBR (or if you wish, someplace else). Configure Grub properly (this is by the way the point most people screw up, and it's fixable but most of them don't even try before wiping everything out and crying out loud). Enjoy life..

this isn't really grub. but get a program called system commander. it's a windows program that automatically sets up a dual boot on your computer. you can install as many oses as you like, and you can use grub or lilo. just set your boot loader to install one the super block of your partition and your done.

this allows me to check linux distro, with out my windows getting affected, and it allows me to reinstall windows without linux getting affected.

this works for me

Hmm is there anything like that that doesn't cost $50...?

I thought FC used grub by default - and will find, and setup an option for, Windows in the menu it creates.
If you have only one disk, and you have space unallocated on it, just start installing.

The next SP for XP (and/or Vista) will over-write the MBR, but I think I saw a thread recently that said FC4 could fix that from the recovery mode.
Even if not, it's simple enough to fix, covered a million times in post threads.

Sure, try XOSL: http://www.ranish.com/part/xosl.htm
It's free!

Fedora Core 4 Install

This by all means may not work for everybody.

I run an Intel D865perl motherboard with 2.6 gig Intel processor with 1 gig of ram. Two 250 gig
hard drives. The first hard drive is for Windows XP. Second hard drive is for Fedora and data
backups.

Drive 2 the first 40 gig is Fedora and the second 210 gig is for files backups and Norton ghost 2003
images. Which I never doing anything without a current image file it will save your butt.

Install Fedora Core 4 on the second hard drive and use the automatic partitioning tool but don't
put grub on your Master MBR put it on the first sector on your second drive. When you get to the
Boot Loader Configuration screen make sure you check the Configure advanced boot loader
options. The next screen will give the option where to put Grub Boot Loader. It should say like
hda or hdb. Hda is usually your XP Drive. From their finish loading. Put it on hdb.

Now duel booting using XP boot manager (My Preference. I don't like third party boot managers.)

Use your rescue CD to boot to Fedora.
Hit enter at the boot prompt.
Hit enter for English
Hit enter for us
Setup network select no
At the rescue screen select continue
At the next rescue screen hit enter
Now you have a prompt sh-3.00#
At the prompt type in chroot /mnt/sysimage
If hdb2 is Not your boot partition, change it as appropriate. Type: df then determine which hda#
Run the command dd if=/dev/hdb2 of=boot.lnx bs=512 count=1
You should see
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
Type ls and you should see a file named boot.lnx
Put a blank floppy disk in your a: drive
Type mcopy boot.lnx a:
It should have copied the file to your a: drive

Now reboot to Windows

Copy boot.lnx to your root directory
Right click on your boot.ini file select properties and uncheck read only click ok
Double click your boot.ini file and add one line at the end it should read
C:\boot.lnx="Fedora Core 3". Then save it. When you reboot your XP boot
manager will come up and you can chose Fedora it jumps to the Grub Boot manager on your
second drive.

My file looks like this

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(0)(1)\windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(0)(1)\windows="Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2"
/fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
c:\boot.lnx="RedHat Fedora Core 3 Project"

You call it anything you want

i've had a lot of success (2 dual-boot systems) if i first set up all my partitions in Windows using Acronis DiskDirector Suite, it will resize your main Windows partition (which you can leave as free space or make into new partitions, it can format partitions as fat32/ntfs/ext2/ext3/ReiserFS and cen set them primary or logical) and makes sure your stuff doesn't get messed up.

I usually just shrink Windows' partition and leave the rest as "free space", then let Fedora's Disk Druid (or whatever the partitioning utility of your distro) have at it.

Now that you mention it, some distributions are good enough so the user doesn't need to use any 3rd-party weird software. Ubuntu linux, for example, is great: using the dvd (or 2 cds) one may use the LiveCD to test if Ubuntu runs on the machine, and use the gparted on the LiveCD to resize windows partitions, and then reboot and start the installation (with the same dvd or with the install cd). No need for wondering where to get a partition-editing software..and the best: seems to work flawlessly. Actually Ubuntu is better than Fedora in many ways, especially for new-comers; setup and starting to use is so much easier for a first-timer than with Fedora. Also, Fedora doesn't offer (at least yet) any LiveCD to perform partition editing or test-running..

Plus, Ubuntu is more stable and works great - my opinion after I tried.

It's still a wonder how it seems that some people are actually afraid of trying to make a dual-booting system. Windows does not by any means "control" the pc or anything, it's just a bunch of apps on top of the core. Like Linux. The only problem seems to be the bootloader(s) getting overrun..but with a little effort and reading, that kind of problems are not problems after all..

I hope that in the world of tomorrow people do not talk about Windows as "pc" or "THE operating system" or anything that sounds so dominating. It's sad when you read manuals or system requirements where it stands "PC" for "Windows". Not that this has anything to do with this thread, though