Can I dual boot XP and Fedora Core 4 as easy as with Mandriva?
 

My HDD is now installed with windows XP SP2.
I use partition magic to free 6GB at the end of the HDD.
So, can i just install FC4 and choose grub as bootloader, and dual boot them ?
I remember FC2 rewrite the HDD and causes XP not able to boot, is this problem fixed in FC4 and FC3?

Not sure what does that mean!

FC2 rewrite the HDD???
If you select the proper options, then everything should go smoothly.
If you select anything like Automatic Paritioning, even FC4 will wash your Hard disk off, and install FC4. (Thereby killing Windows XP, and any data present on the computer.)

FC2 rewrite the HDD structure and cause XP not able to boot.

What you have to watch is this. XP puts some data way out almost to the end of the drive and it is unmovable within the OS. Partition magic I have read will move it and it !should! be OK. That data will not move even if you defrag your drive. It is colored in green if you want to see it after the defrag process. From experience I can tell you this, if you partition that drive and it removes the data, you will not get XP to boot. You will have to re-install windoze and then re-install the bootloader, lilo or grub, if you have Linux installed.

The easiest way to overcome this is to put linux on a second hard drive and leave the windoze drive alone except for putting the boot loader on it. That way you don't have to worry about loosing those critical files.

Now you may want to ask why M$ did this. The cynical part of me says it is to make it harder to install Linux. There is no other reason that I have read about. It certainly doesn't make the system faster by having those files out there by themselves. It makes a lot more sense to put all the often read system files on the inner part of the drive and not on the outer part.

If you want to re-install windoze and re-do the whole thing from the beginning, you can do this. Back up your data that you don't want to loose. Boot the windoze CD and re-partition with the size partition you want for windoze and leave what you want to use later for Linux unused. Install windoze and boot it a few times to make sure it is going to live. Then boot the Linux CD and use the remaining space for Linux. You can partition it in any way that you want. If you use Redhat, Mandrake or something it is really easy but the basics must have is this:

Now if you think you may try other distros later on, I strongly suggest that you have a seperate /boot partition. It makes life a lot easier if you want to play with other distros. Just tell it to make the seperate /boot partition during the install. Trust me, make a seperate /boot partition now and save yourself a few headaches later. I've been there and got the T-shirt to prove it. /boot can be as little as 30 MBs and be plenty big enough for several distros.

If you repartition that drive and XP does not boot, it is windozes fault for putting that data way out there on the drive. They just want you to blame Linux for their screw-up.

Later

:D :D :D :D

i free 7 GB at the end of my hdd, is it ok to install fedora Core3 or 4?

I have never installed Fedora so I am not sure how much room it will take but that should be plenty of room. If it is not for some strange reason it will tell you I'm sure. I have installed Mandrake on a 2.5Gb drive and had plenty of room left over. You should be fine and have no problem unless you install everything on the CD.

Give it a shot. It shouldn't hurt your windoze even if it doesn't install.

Later

:D :D :D :D

Hi there,

dalek, I'm intrigued about your problem getting windows to boot after getting rid of the files at the end of the drive. I recently used qtparted to resize my HD with XPSP2 installed, obviously erasing the files at the end of the drive and booted windows fine. I did get a message telling me windows had finished installing something when I booted the first time and told me to reboot, which I did, and I've been able to use XP problem free ever since.

Also, because I'm curious, why is it better to have a seperate /boot partition? Surely if you're going to try out different distros (and by that I mean installing them on your system, replacing any existing distro) then surely it makes absolutely no difference whether you have a seperate /boot partition or not? Is it only beneficial if you intend to install multiple distros along side each other?

Cheers.

Keep in mind that I do NOT use windoze at all. I have friends that have it but that is all. I have read where a lot of people have repartitioned their drive and lost those files and it not boot afterwards. I did have that happen to me once on someone elses rig though. It does happen, that I know. Sometimes you can re-install windoze on top of itself and it replace those files. I have no clue what they are.

The seperate boot comes in handy if you have more than one distro at the same time. If you don't plan to have more than one it doesn't matter. I have done that because I dual booted Mandrake and Gentoo for a while. Since I installed the boot loader from Mandrake, each time I wanted to change something with the boot-up, I had to boot Mandrake to change it because Mandrake had the boot partition as part of its root partition. It is hard to explain but if you run into it then make a seperate boot partition and see how easy it is, then you see it real clear. It sort of reminds me of when I was real young. I had allergies very bad. I was sick all the time but didn't know it because to me, it was normal. I thought I was suposed to feel that way. Once I got some meds and started feeling better, then I knew how sick I was. I was mad at my parents for not seeing that I was sick too. My first grade teacher saw it, why didn't they??

Anyway, be careful if you remove those files and a seperate /boot is the best way to go. It is so small compared to those big drives people use any so why not have it. I know when I started out, I thought I would never switch from Mandrake. Once I got into dependancy he11 then I switched. Trust me, if you mess with Linux much at all, you will have more than one or at least want one to transistion from. I actually installed Gentoo from Mandrake. :rolleyes: I have no plans to go back to Mandrake either.

Does that make sense? It's sometimes hard to type in what you mean. :scratch:

Later

:D :D :D :D

Yeah, I can see how a seperate boot partition would make life a hell of a lot easier if you have multiple distros installed at the same. Just wanted to clarify.

Thanks.

can i uninstall fedora by booting using bootup disk of windows ME, then type fdisk /mbr.
this is how i uninstall mandrake.

No, I believe fdisk /mbr will re-install the windows bootloader to the mbr. This won't erase the fedora installation, it will just erase the bootloader already present, which means basically you'll remove the option to boot fedora core and revert back to a windows bootloader instead of using grub or lilo.

From windows you will be able to reformat the partition with fedora installed, this will get rid of all data on the partition.

Dual Boot
 

I have done both Fedora Core 4 64bit and also Mandriva 2005LE 64bit using dual boot.
I have a AMD processor and now trying to install vmware to see how it will run.
I have windowsXP sp2 and have used partition magic to carve up the hard drive.
On mandriva I use a floppy for booting either windows or it.
On Fedora Core 4 it will write the boot sector into the MBR and did not have any problems.

Larry.

how to make bootdisk for mandriva?

Mandriva
 

At the end of the install you get a screen where you can change the date/time
monitor etc. and scroll down and near the bottom there is a option to change the boot
loader.
you go into that and set the device there as it has already set it to hda?

Also if the system is up and running you can go into syscofig and down at the bottom of the list is BOOT
go in there and it has three choices and one is to change the boot loader.

hope this helps if not let me know and I will go back in
and write it down step by step.
I assume you will have to do it as I stated towards the last.

Larry

Try this

There is also the Mandriva Documentation which is where I got the above link from, but this might prove useful.