Ok im a total Linux newbie so bare with me.
Im about to install Mandrake 9.1 and i have a few questions about the installation. I have windows 2000 as my primary OS, and i have 2 80Gb hard drives.

First of all, would it be better to partition my hard drive in windows with PartitionMagic before i start intalling linux, or just let linux do so during the installation process? And if i let linux do it, what option would i choose at the partition step? I need windows and Linux on totally different partitions where they cant affect each other at all.

Next, during the installation process, do i just need to choose GRUB for my bootloader and will that set everything up where i can choose between Mandrake and Win2k when i turn my computer on?

In addition, i can use broadband occasionally but i also use dial up quite a bit, and i use AOL in windows as my isp to do so, so as far as connecting to the internet thru linux with a modem what do i need to do? I dont care how i do so, i just want to be able to dial up with my modem in Linux, because im clueless as far as that goes. And whenever im on broadband, will i have to set any addresses or anything up?

Finally, is there anything else at all that i should know before i start installing mandrake, whether it has to do with the installation process, what to do to my computer beforehand, what to do after the installation, or anything else at all that i need to know.

thanks in advance.

if at all possible
it would be best to put Linux on a seperate hard drive to windows (you say you have 2)

mandrake will (probably) detect all your hardware
the best way to be sure is to make a list of all the hardware in your pc
and go the mandrake site and look for the hardware compatibility list
this may well save you heartache if there's a problem somewhere
or
post the list here and see what peoples experience has been

you'll need to have a hardware modem if you want dial up "out of the box"
some winmodems can be made to work, and the list is growing, but
a lot still don't

i don't think Mandrake allows a choice of bootloaders (i always use the default which is LILO - never had a problem with it)

Mandrake 9.1 is pretty awesome.

As far as the partition goes, if you have to put them both on the same hard drive, and already have partition magic, then make the partition in Win with partition magic, but leave it blank or FAT32. Then when you install Mandrake you can brake down that partition to your root (/), swap and /home. You can click on that big empty partition in setup and auto allocate it.

Just make sure you put your boot loader at the beginning of the drive, not the beginning of the partition.

hey salparadise...

what exactly do u mean "hardware modem". i mean i have a modem with all the needed drivers, and it should work in linux.

and also, about the hardware compatability, what exactly will i have to do if any of my hardware doesnt work in linux right when i get it installed?

Give this a try for learning what the differences between a hardware (controller) versus software (winmodem) are. It helped me.

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Modem-HOWTO.html

I had to swap out my 56.6 USR winmodem for a USR contoller based modem (model 5610) to get my dialup to work with Mandrake.

Mandrake has a hardware compatibility page(s):

http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/hardware.php3

Good place to check your box before you install (although Mandrake is pretty good at detecting most hardware).

Hey all, I'm also completely new to Linux. I'm planning on installing linux on a totally different drive from Windows, except I need a good (very very good) guide on how. Oh, and which linux is better: RH or Mandrake? I've got a copy of RH, but some are saying Mandrake is better.

If you're installing a system for the first time, I would not install Red Hat. Unless you use Red Hat Enterprise, you'd be putting a dead distro on your computer.

aenimax - you say you have drivers for your winmodem - you mean Linux drivers? Because you do know Microsoft drivers aren't going to do you any good? Several winmodems are supported though, so you may be okay. And I wouldn't freak if your hardware didn't show up on HCLs - I haven't looked at Mandrake's lately or anything, but those lists are usually quite incomplete and out of date. Wouldn't hurt to factor it in, but I wouldn't just give up if my stuff wasn't listed.

And I agree with the others -separate hard drives if possible, but not necessary and let Mandrake take care of Mandrake and not use any goofy third-party tool. Mandrake can even resize NTFS partitions if it came down to that - the setup process is pretty clear and easy.

You can use PM to free up some disk space or let the installer do it for you. You can let the installer auto allocate partitions based on the amount of free space. Be sure to select the expert install mode to avoid overwriting your windows OS.

For documentation see Mandrake's website @ www.linuxmandrake.com

A hardware modem actually has an integrated chip known as an Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART). This connects with one of the serial ports in the PC. A winmodem does not. All external serial port modems are hardware (This does not include USB). Most internal modems these days are winmodems.

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Winmodems-...x-HOWTO-1.html

ok everything just messed up. I use PM to resize my original NFTS partition on my 2nd hard drive (not the one with windows, just some programs and stuff) and during the resizing process there was an error, and when i rebooted my computer my F: (the 2nd hd) was totally empty and it says "F:/ is not accessible, the file or directory is corrupted or unreadable". Now my windows drive and all its componenets work perfectly fine so its not that big of a deal, but i have no clue what i did wrong. My hard drive is 80GB, and it was all used in the original NFTS partition, so i tried to resize it to about 68 GB and leave the rest for linux. So i had to reboot to apply the changes and during the resizing there was that error. After that my F:/ was screwed.

Now i read the user manual and everything for partition magic and what i was attempting to do seemed to be fine, but something screwed up. If anyone has any advice or help for me please!! please! tell me. I would like to get my data back from that hard drive but if i dont its not that big of a deal. i need to know what i did wrong and i need to know how to get my F:/ back working. should i format the drive? and if i do format, will i have to do any partitioning to get it back to the way it was before?

ANY advice is needed.

thanks in advance, and thank you everyone who has replied to my first post.

Another experience which tells us Partition Magic is not to be trusted!

You could try to allocate the old (80GB NTFS?) partition to that drive through Mandrake's partition utility and break off installation there. Then see if you can rescue any data. Otherwise use Mandrake to completely wipe and repartition that drive.

ok, thanks.

any other suggestions from anyone?

yeah, stay away from NTFS. I've never had a probem with PM, but I never use NTFS. MS has proven that security sucks with them, what good will that file system do?

Just reformat that drive to fat32 and let your install handle the rest.

ok so first im going to reformat my drive, and after i do that how do i go about repartitioning the drive (to fat32 i guess) so that my windows can use that 2nd hard drive again. because after i get it formatted and partitioned so that windows can use it properly i can then either try PartitionMagic again to partition for linux or i can just install linux & let it resize the windows partition and do anything it needs to do in order to create the linux partitions.

So here's my main questions, whats the best way to format the 2nd hard drive, and how do i partition it back normal so windows can use it again?

the built in partitioner in Linux is massively easy and powerful compared to fdisk and others

if you're planning to take a hard drive, put a fat32 partition on it and leave the rest for linux, then
mandrake can do all that, including formatting a partition with fat32

if i've misunderstood you
i'm sorry