Hi people,

I have downloaded the Fedora Core 2 ISOs onto my PC but I have just discovered the problems that people are now encountering with regards of installing Fedora 2 with a machine already installed with Windows XP. Does this problem only happen when the two operating systems are installed on the same hard drive? And so, would I avoid this with installing Fedora Core 2 on my second hard drive?

Thanks very much!!

Here is the link for the XP/FC2 dual boot problem where the disk geometry problem and suggested fix is summarized... http://www.mockus.us/optimum/dual-solved.html .

If you don't want to bother with the workaround and are unsure about whether the problem will happen due to the FC2 installer (anaconda), the use of grub in the MBR, or through partitioning with Disk Druid (since I've yet to hear a clear answer on which causes the problem, even though I've asked), you might want to do what I did to dual-boot between WinXP (on one drive) and FC2 (on a second drive).

First, I set up all the partitions for FC2 on my second hard drive by using Norton's PartitionMagic 8.0. You can set these up however you like, but I decided on having root, swap, /boot, /usr, /home, /tmp, and /opt partitions on my second hard drive, plus a FAT32 partition for easy swapping between WinXP and FC2. Then, I installed BootMagic (comes with PartitionMagic) into the MBR through WinXP. BootMagic becomes the controller for dual-booting between OSs. I then installed FC2 to the Linux ext3 partitions I had created, mounting each of the partitions as required. This is an advanced/manual configuration using Disk Druid, so Disk Druid isn't doing anything but mounting the partitions. I then tell the installer to install grub (the Linux dual-boot controller) to the /boot directory rather than to the MBR (where BootMagic already resides). After completing the install, you boot to WinXP, configure BootMagic to show the new FC2 install, then reboot and choose FC2 from the BootMagic list in order to continue with FC2 configuration and setup.

This procedure worked perfectly and allows one to workaround the entire drive geometry issue, seemingly without a glitch. I wasn't able to get any of my specific questions regarding the geometry problem answered to my satisfaction, so this was a good way to handle it. However, if you aren't terribly concerned, you can use the workaround provided and go from there, as I have heard many people use it and are able to manage installing FC2 dual-booting with WinXP just fine. I just thought I'd provide this as an alternative method. I planned on purchasing Norton PartitionMagic 8.0 anyway (not PowerQuest's PartitionMagic 8.0, which is an older version that didn't support drives larger than 160 GB), but if you do not wish to do so, you might end up needing to use the tools provided in the FC2 install afterall.