Do I have to defrag my system in order to install linux onto a computer to dual-boot it with windows?
and one more thing:
which is better suse or mandrake 10

Most repartitioning tools will require you
to defragment a Windows filesystem before
commencing their activities.

As for the second question:
You've just started another holy war :}

I'll take side with SuSE if these are
the only two choices you're willing
to consider...


Cheers,
Tink

I'd say yes to be on the safe side as it will reduce any chance of problems. My personal choice is mdk 10, but Suse is okay. Try to read any info on dual booting with your chosen distro to make sure you pick the right install options.

ok here's an easier question lol and its kinda good feeling that i've started a holy war jk

which is easier to have a dual-boot install with? i've heard mdk being on top but i dont know

both of their live versions look very nice, and i can't decide which is better :-/

suse is winning tho lol, only because ui, altho suse live version is not as flexible as mdk.

Maybe you should get a second opinion on this but I would say no.

When you install Linux, you will choose a partition and reformat it. This means it will erase any files on it and create a new file system on it. Because of this, I don't think you need to defrag.

hope this makes sense and helps.

should've made myself clear:
my dad doesn't want windows booted off completely, i suggested to him to completely obliterate windows and try linux, he said noooooo

maybe i'll try to convince him to do so lol

I think in this case tho he has a big drive (or two) with wndows on it. You can defrag those and then get linux to resize the partitions during the install and create new partitions to install the linux on. You are going to need at least 4 gig for a comprehensive install, tho you can make do with less if you just want basics. Anyway, when you finish you dual boot windows and linux... But you need to read up and be careful as a wrong move could wipe the windows drive.

any websites i can refer to (other than here i havta thank all of you btw i'm gettin much better luck here) for dual-boot with linux? i know i havta be careful lol, and that's why i'm trying to persuade my dad to obliterate windows lol.

i have a decent hard drive, altho it could use some cleaning up lol

dont i have to set up a swap partition too? 256 megs is more than enough right

There should be some sites that go through the detail, but also there will be info on the disks you get... With mandrake 10 it pretty well walks you through the install anyway, so you wouldn't have too much trouble. I immagine SuSe is the same.

Swap can be 200 - 500, depending on ram. I use 500 as I run a lot of stuff. I used to run a gig back when I was building half-life maps...

Anyway, if you have the space you can go for a 4-6 gig root or / partition. That's where all the programs go, so if you want to install quake3 ut or rtcw you'll need the room - though you can put them elsewhere as linux is very flexible when it comes to filesystem. Make lots of room if you want ut2004 on linux As for /home, where your data and files are stored, that should be 1gig to 6gig or beyond, depending on what you want to do. If you want to run windows games and apps on winex, crossover, win4lin or something, then they tend to install in home, so you need room. My current system is:

/ 6 gig
/home 6gig
/swap 5oo meg
plus various archives, backups, fat shared drives, win drives that don't get used any more, etc...

So don't panic, just be wary... Also try googling for dual boot howto's on the web. It will be easy enough though and the distro will ask you the questions about resizing the drive...

Actually I am just about to do a mdk 10 install on my daughters win box right now, so I will do it newbie fashion with mdk 10 and see what it does, okay

I'll let you know

now if i completely obliterate windows, i love that word obliterate lol, but neways if i do that to windows, is this all irrelevant or almost?

one more thing: main question here is do i havta defrag i'm guessing the answer is yes just making sure

If you obliterate windows it's dead easy (assuming there are no hardware compatibility issues) but you don't have to remove windows. It will dual boot just fine and keep dad happy for a while

As for the defrag. I have done it without a defrag, but the recomendation is to defrag before as this makes the resize and repartition step easier and safer...

Anyway, I'm going to do an install now. cheers!

Defragmenting cant really harm .. so Id recommend that you do that .
how2s should be in tons on www.tldp.org OR of course here on lq.org ....

maybe have a look at Gentoo ... gentoo.org ... Im certainly gonna try it in a few days .... looks quite hot to my eyes .... .

Id recommend SuSE as Ive experienced 8.1 ,8.2 ,and 9.0 ... but I have now got a bit too enoyed with everyone saying Linux is the best ever and so much better than XP ... and for me SuSE is very Newbee friendlz and reasonably fast .. but I got enoyed with not havin apt get or similiar built in ... and depencies ... but it is very good and the new one based on the 2.6 kernel is prop a really powerful flavour ... .

But I dont know Mandrake .. but have heard mostly good things .


Da Wini G.

it seems most ppl like mdk but suse looks great too
gah i'm gonna explode i think the prob with linux is there's too MANY flavors lol, but i still would love to try linux, i think, and i might want to go mandrake because most ppl say its for noobs, altho suse looks much more cleaner...

and how come on mandrake when u double click the title-bar it does "shade" but in suse it maximizes? they're both using kde....

o and btw i'm asking bout the defrag question so bad because of the fact that i've tried defragging the comp in safe mode and it goes soooo slow

maybe i should try overnight?

to mods: sry for not editing

I've defragged right now, and i looked and ther'es still a little blue thingy that's not at the front of the disk, but I'm not gonna bother with that, i know it has something to do with windows virtual memory, but i'm not gonna bother...unless i have to

i'm doing chkdsk on the comp right now, i'm wondering if neone could give me screenshots of mandrake 10, plz? send to my e-mail at spks3707@yahoo.com (dont use the one on this forum that i registered as)

thanx a mil everyone, dual-booting should be easier........

one more question: mdk setup will not set up a dual-boot menu will they?

okay, I just installed another copy of mdk 10 on a win box and it was no problems.

re defraging... they say it's optional but you must run chkdsk and a command prompt to make sure the filesystem is okay.

Then make sure the cdrom is booting on startup in the Bios and go for it. The install is easy, just follow the instructions as you go. It asks a few simple questions about language and keyboard and stuff.

then you get the menu:

o Use existing partions.
o Erase entire disk
o Use the free space on the Windows partition
o Custom disk partition

You'll probably want option 3. You will get a slide bar that you set wher you want... ie if it's at 20 gig and you want 8 for linux then just slide it down to 12 if you can. It won't let you go smaller than the amount of files on the drive.

You then go from there and it will auto create the /swap / and /home partitions in an appropriate size. If you want more control use option 4 which gives you a partition magic type display.

You will need to select what software to install. pretty easy and the default is pretty good. You can always add later. You can just pick the major groups you want or individual stuff.

You will need to enter a root passowrd when it asks and set up at least one user. It will auto detect most hardware and let you set up other hardware, video, etc, or you can set it up later when installed. Best to set up video now tho if you can.

It will also auto set up the boot menu with some luck and you won't need to mess with that. It will make a menu where you can boot linux or windows with linux as the default.

so that's mdk 10 in brief. Took me a couple of hourse due to a lot of specialized stuff, like crossover and networked printers and sambe and... well.. stuff.