Dual Boot: Install Linux First

Perspective · 11-12-2004, 09:23 PM

Ive installed Core 3, ive made partitions for windows (VFAT) when i try to install windows it boots off the cd, displays "Setup is checking your hardware configuration" then the screen goes black and it hangs. I think my XP disc might be hosed but i wanted to check here to see if something in my set up might be causing this. Let me know if you need more info.

btw: its a Dell XP installation CD. (i hope it didnt depend on the windows MBR? ... naw that wouldnt make sense, even for microsoft)

(ive added the FS types to the df output below)

Code:

$ df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol01
                      7.7G  3.3G  4.1G  45% /        (ext3)
/dev/hda1              99M  8.8M   85M  10% /boot
none                  506M     0  506M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda5             3.9G   47M  3.6G   2% /home (ext3)
/dev/hda6              20G   16K   20G   1% /mnt/share (FAT)
/dev/hda2             3.9G  4.0K  3.9G   1% /mnt/windows (FAT)

mAineAc · 11-12-2004, 09:34 PM

you have to install windows first. It needs to be on the first part of the disk.

Perspective · 11-13-2004, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mAineAc
you have to install windows first. It needs to be on the first part of the disk.

ok, i can do that. But that dosent really explain why the windows installer wont boot. It should at least boot up and try to install over the fedora install shouldnt it? or do i need to remove the partitions first.

mAineAc · 11-13-2004, 12:44 PM

Windows is stupid. It doesn't recognize the file format so it assumes it can't do anything there. It can recognize fat32 NTFS and empty and that is it. It also doesn't recognize anything after a certain point on a hardrive as a bootable place either so there are a couple of reasons for it not to work.

Perspective · 11-13-2004, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mAineAc
Windows is stupid. It doesn't recognize the file format so it assumes it can't do anything there. It can recognize fat32 NTFS and empty and that is it. It also doesn't recognize anything after a certain point on a hardrive as a bootable place either so there are a couple of reasons for it not to work.

\

heh, for some reason im just not surprised

thanks for your help.