hi. i'm currently d/l Fedora Core 5 from the http mirrors here http://iso.linuxquestions.org/version.php?version=304 -- i would use a torrent but i don't have anything to support 'em right now...

anyway-- in the meantime, would i be able to format the HDD (using XP Pro) to prepare it for this Linux install?

regardless of pre-formatting, or not-- what is the best practice for formatting my drive for Fedora Core 5? i ask because i'm aware that there are indeed different ways of formatting the HDD-- for example, i have Partition Magic on floppy which gives me a format for linux option. do you recommend anything like that? another 3rd party software that i should put on a floppy? obviously i'm new at this, so i just want to be sure i do it right. thanks!

If you have to resize the XP NTFS partition to make room for Linux then - Id guess - thats best done with a Windows App like Partition Magic (no guarantees!) - but if you already have room for Fedora then just throw in the burnt disks & do it via the partitioning tool which is part of the install.

You might be able to resize NTFS filesystems under Fedora 5 install as well - dont know .

Hi

You did not say that you were planning to dual boot with XP, but I will assume that you are. You will need to partition your drive to make room for FC (I recommend at least 7gig). It does not matter what filesystem you format that partition to because FC5 will create the filesystem for you. MAKE SURE YOU DEFRAGMENT BEFORE YOU REPARTITION OR YOU COULD CREATE PROBLEMS IN WINDOWS. Partition Magic will work just fine.

Hope this helps,

Bob

sorry... this isn't a dual boot system. but, it's done and done now anyway. it was easy. the 40GB drive had XP on it, so i just powered down, put in FD5.iso1 and booted into cd-rom. from there, similar i suppose to the way win users might be familiar w/ the partitioning / formatting options at the initial setup, FedoraCore5 provided several options. i chose to remove all existing partitions and install FC5 in the resulting space (i believe)... i didn't want to waste any space, and had no need to save any of that existing data. i couldn't have asked for a more easy-to-use installation walkthrough. it was very simple, not at all too foreign, and it all happened in under 30 mins (probably under 20mins), which was a nice change from what i'm familiar with. i'm real happy so far-- a few snags here and there, but for a guy who's had no Linux experience, and read no major text on it yet, i find it surprisingly easy to adjust. i'm excited to learn more. it's nice to be excited about sitting down here again to work! (even so what if i've been playing more than producing at this point