Newbie needs help with dual boot w/XP

senorjuice · 12-08-2003, 10:39 AM

Hey all,
I have a nice box running XP Pro, 2 hard drives etc..
I would like to try mandrake, but am not sure if it will go all right and
I really don't want to mess with my finally good working XP install.
I have all of my hard drives in NTFS format, is this a problem for linux?
Also, how would I go upon installing linux on my slave drive,
my 1st drive is partitioned into 3 with xp on c:, music on d:, and games
on e:. the 2nd physical drive (f: ) I've been using for backup, but would like to
use it to try mandrake.
I'm really new at this and could use any suggestions and walk thru's.
Thanks

jkobrien · 12-08-2003, 10:46 AM

Hi,

There's lots of help for this on the web, and especially at mandrake and redhats' web sites.

You will have to create some partitions on your slave drive for linux, and these will be reformatted. Linux can read NTFS but, as MS don't reveal much about this filesystem, there is no write support yet. The installation program for Mandrake will take care of all that for you and is really very straightforward.

The best thing to do is to go to the mandrake website and download the iso's. Burn these onto CD's (this isn't the same as burning ordinary data files). Then reboot with the first CD in the drive and follow the instructions on the screen.

John

senorjuice · 12-08-2003, 10:49 AM

Thanks John,
quick question, I do have the iso's and am ready to burn them with nero, but should I make a partition from partition magic? fat32?
Thanks

jkobrien · 12-08-2003, 11:08 AM

Hi,

I did this a while ago and can't remember exactly. I'm pretty sure, though, that I made the partitions first with partition magic and then rebooted with the Mdk cd in the drive.
It doesn't matter if you make the new partitions fat32 or not, the installation will reformat them anyway to ext2 or ext3.

John

rberry88 · 12-08-2003, 12:39 PM

You don't even have to make the partitions before you start the install. I usually just leave the space I want to install to unformatted and when I'm in the install process I set up my partitions the way I want.

rberry88

Skyline · 12-08-2003, 01:54 PM

...... just to add to that - Linux sees IDE drives like this:

/dev/hda - drive on the primary master channel
/dev/hdb - primary slave
/dev/hdc - secondary master
/dev/hdd - secondary slave

just to make sure you dont install "over" your XP drive..

partitions are named like;

/dev/hda3 - 3rd partition on the drive on the Primary Master channel

/dev/hdb1 - 1st partition on the Primary Slave drive

etc etc etc..