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Installing Arch 0.6 on a dual-boot configured laptop

I have a dell laptop with WinXP and Fedora Core1 installed and dual-booting.
I'm wanting to replace Fedora Core1 with Arch linux but I'm not sure if during the Arch linux install if it will wipe out my Fedora and WinXP partitions if I go the auto-partition way.
Can anybody recommend the best way to maintain my dual boot configuration with WinXP and Arch linux?

Thanks!

p.s. Ignore my signature, that is another machine

As far as I know, auto-partition will take over your whole hard disk, and you don't want to do that. However, since you have a linux partition all set up already, it shouldn't be too hard to take the "expert" route, and tell it to install over fedora. You might want to save your lilo/grub config from fedora though, if you don't fancy setting that up again. Best of luck!

Here's what I would do when installing it (keep in mind that my computer's not a Dell):

1) Skip straight to Setting Filesystem Mountpoints (ignoring Auto-Partition and Create Partitions).

2) For swap, pick whichever swap Fedora created. It might be /dev/discs/disc0/part5

3) For "select the parition to use as /", use the root partition Fedora created. For me it was /dev/discs/disc0/part3

4) For "select any additional partitions to mount under your new root", select the boot partition Fedora created. For me, it was /dev/discs/disc0/part2

5) For "select mount point", delete what's there and type "/boot".

6) Proceed as usual. When you get to the configuring part, make sure you edit menu.lst and add this something like this at the bottom:

Code:

title Windows XP

rootnoverify (hd0,0)

chainloader +1

I would open up the grub.conf that Fedora's anaconda installer generated and verify that that's correct.

IMPORTANT: I think some Dell computers have a special Dell utility partition as the first partition, so the partition numbers I had may be shifted by one in your case. Make sure you run cfdisk beforehand to check the partitions you have, otherwise you'll overwrite Windows instead of the Fedora boot partition.

Quote:

Originally posted by LinuXP
[B]Here's what I would do when installing it (keep in mind that my computer's not a Dell):

1) Skip straight to Setting Filesystem Mountpoints (ignoring Auto-Partition and Create Partitions).

2) For swap, pick whichever swap Fedora created. It might be /dev/discs/disc0/part5

3) For "select the parition to use as /", use the root partition Fedora created. For me it was /dev/discs/disc0/part3

4) For "select any additional partitions to mount under your new root", select the boot partition Fedora created. For me, it was /dev/discs/disc0/part2

5) For "select mount point", delete what's there and type "/boot".

6) Proceed as usual. When you get to the configuring part, make sure you edit menu.lst and add this something like this at the bottom:

Code:

title Windows XP

rootnoverify (hd0,0)

chainloader +1

I would open up the grub.conf that Fedora's anaconda installer generated and verify that that's correct.

Yep.