I am kinda new to linux, I have used it seperatly on different boxes and have just recently received a new laptop from work. I would like to dual boot Windows XP and Linux, perferably Debian. Most of the websites that I have read on Dual booting explain it with creating a boot disk. Well the new Dell's cost extra to have a FDD, so I am out of luck.

Any suggestions or help would be great. Also on setting up partioning would be wonderful.

Not sure about Debian, but I can attest to both Slackware and SuSE...you don't need to have a floppy boot disk to dual-boot your computer. It is good practice to make a rescue boot floppy, but as with most things Linux, it isn't required. As long as you can boot off your CD-ROM (I'll assume that is where the distro is being installed from), you won't need a floppy to install Linux.

One thing to know going into this is that you may need to pre-size your Windows XP partition before installing your distro of choice. I started with SuSE 8.2 and it only allowed me to resize non-NTFS partitions (which of course I had XP installed on at the time). I ended up using PartitionMagic to resize my NTFS partition and then went through the stardard SuSE install process. I believe that the current version of SuSE now also allows you to resize an NTFS partition as well. Since you are considering Debian and not SuSE, it may not come with an appropriate tool (or it may, I just don't know).

Once the distro is installed, the installation allows you to select how you want to boot the computer, using either a boot floppy, or LILO or GRUB can be written to the MBR (master boot record). This would allow you to select which OS you want to boot into when you start the computer.

BTW, I initially had a Windows XP/SuSE 8.2 installed and running on a Dell Inspiron 8200, and it worked just fine.

Won't installing it on the MBR with either GRUB or LILO overight the current boot record for WinXP?

From what I read I was supposed to load WinXP, load Linux distro and then copy the boot from the Floppy to my NT boot.

So will I be fine just installing whatever distro in its own partition?

To answer your first question, yes, GRUB or LILO will overwrite the current boot record for WinXP, if that is the boot-up method you choose. GRUB and LILO are capable of booting either WinXP or your linux distro of choice. The opposite cannot be said about the MS boot loader -- it will only recognize FAT/FAT32/NTFS partitions.

I had WinXP pre-installed on my laptop from the factory. When I went to install SuSE, I used PartitionMagic to resize my WinXP partition (made it smaller), went through the SuSE installation (which allowed me to create and format a ext3 partition and swap partition for Linux, and then at the end wrote GRUB to my MBR which allowed me to boot either into WinXP or SuSE.

If you install Linux first and then Windows, the MS boot manager overwrites the MBR and the only option you have upon booting is XP.

Realize, too, that you could always write the GRUB or LILO program to your boot floppy. That way if you wanted Linux, you booted from the floppy, if you wanted XP, you booted from the MBR on your hard drive. But since you are without a FDD, using LILO or GRUB on your MBR should give you the same thing.

Is that any clearer?

Perfectly clear, thanks for explaining it again in more depth

No problem. Glad I could help.

yes it will overwrite the MBR, but thats the only way to get the bootloader to work, if you get tired of lilo or want to remove linux or whatever, just boot to winxp, got to recovery console and type fixmbr, poof all done.

Currently I do not have the spare money to purchase powerquest partition magic do take care of my disk partioning, is there a free piece of software that will help me out. I know Tino27 mentioned SUSE will repartition NTFS volumes during will Debian? Maybe I should ask on the Debian board?

Check out http://linuxshop.ru/linuxbegin/win-l...en/table.shtml

Search for the word "partitions manager"

Don't know if any are free, but there are links you can at least try.