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I have been pondering the idea of adding more systems to my pre-existing WinXP/Mandriva dual-boot system for some time now. Since I have a 160G HD, i'll probably add a bunch of distros just to try some.
Anyway I have been reading a lot on this topic and I have noticed there are a lot of ways to do this. My questions are as follows:
1. Should I wipe my HD and re-install everything from the ground up, or should I leave the windows partition the way it is? As a second part to this, I already have mandriva 2006 RC1 installed and I'd like to leave that alone if I can. Is this a good idea??? to wipe, or not to wipe?
2. I have read a lot of forums here and elsewhere that suggest if you have a multi-boot system it's OK to share a /home directory between all the distros. However, this link suggests that it may not be such a good idea. What do you LQ readers suggest - to share or not to share?
3. I have also read that some distros (not sure if they meant linux or otherwise) require that they be installed on a primary partition on the Hard drive. Here are the distros that I have to choose from: Suse, Debian, Xandros, Linspire, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mandriva, Slackware, and Gentoo. Are there any of these that fall into that category? ( I don't think they do, just want to make sure)
I should note that I have read a lot about this and I think the way i'm going to do it is the way the guy suggests in that distrowatch link above. If this is a bad idea - speak up! Or, if there's an easier way I should know about - that'd be great, too. Thanks!
1) That is up to you. You can resize your partitions, but that can be slightly risky (although the two links in my personal bookmarks entitled "Resizing NTFS/FAT" have never let me down). From there, just use up the remaining space with as many distros as you want! It'd probably be better to wipe the whole drive though, as that would help you to avoid problems with sectors and whatnot...
2) I don't think you should share a /home directory. The link is correct, and there could be interferences between the distros and the /home directories. It is better (when installing another distro on your PC) to put everything into a / partition (ie. Don't make a separate /home partition for each distro). This may be the best thing to do in your case.
3) When installing distros, I always make them primary partitions. Never logical.
I think you should follow what the dude on DistroWatch said - I've browsed through it and it doesn't look too bad! Use the GRUB boot loader, use the same swap partition (more than one is unnecessary) which should be approximately the size of your RAM, and have fun! That's the most important part- hehe! You could always try the live CDs, though - that might be easier...
In your post you said to use the Grub boot loader. Is there an advantage to doing that over lilo? THe link I gave shows how to add distros to your lilo.conf file, but it doesn't go into how to do the same to Grub. Can you give me some details how this is done??
Everyone always says to install Windows first, right? So, what if I get all these different distros installed after I install Windows and then I need to re-install Windows? Does that mean I have to re-install all those distros, too?
Originally posted by chemdawg Everyone always says to install Windows first, right? So, what if I get all these different distros installed after I install Windows and then I need to re-install Windows? Does that mean I have to re-install all those distros, too?
Just curious
No you don't (as long as you leave their partitions intact), just make sure you have a grub or lilo floppy disk so that you can log into Linux and reinstall your bootloader to the MBR after installing Windows.
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