I'm currently downloading Fedora Core 2. I want to dual boot with my Windows XP partition, but I keep hearing about this bug that screws up the partition table and won't let you to boot, and I have yet to see a reliable fix for it.

So I'm wondering, if I use a live CD like Morphix (I think I have it somewhere) to create a / and swap partition first, and then install Fedora to those, will that prevent the problem? Has anybody tried it?

I really don't want to lose my XP partition so I would like a work-around before I attempt the Fedora install. Frankly I think it's pathetic that it was released at all with a bug like this.

Thanks.

I have never tried Fedora, so I can't say for sure, but most distros give you the option of installing the boot loader on a floppy. That way you can leave your boot partition untouched.

my best suggestion is to create the partitions before you install fedora, it seems the anaconda installer may be causing the problems, not grub. So use Knoppix, partition magic or mandrake move to create partitions and then install fedora to them. Best i can suggest at this time.

Well I've done some more reading and it seems that even if you don't create or edit any partitions during the install process, it still arses up the partition tables. What a shitty distro, I think I will just look elsewere.

Well im gonna keep checking back on this issue, but in the mean time use FC1 untill this gets fixed or someone confirms a work around i guess. I was going to create my partitons in mandrake move or knoppix but if that wont work i dont know what to think of next .

I have done yet more reading, and it seems that this is the most reliable fix so far. Though some people need a value of 255 rather than 240.

Even so, I'm not really sure I would like to risk losing all my data just yet. It's a shame too, Fedora looked like it might be just what I'm looking for. I would use Fedora Core 1, but on a 56K it's no small download. I'm thinking of giving MEPIS a try instead for now.

Good luck with your install.

Will I have any risk of losing any data over this command?(data is easy to backup, reinstall everything in xp or linux ... no) I have the boot problem right now I get into windows by swtiching hdd boot sequence in BIOS when I need to get into windows. I would much prefer a more convinient way

When I installed fc2 my harddrive recognition setting in the bios was set to auto (I'm not sure whether the install did it or not) . After trying numerous
suggestions about changing grub.conf that didn't work I changed the harddrive bios detection from auto to LBA. worked perfect. I don't know if this will help or not but it sure fixed my boot problems. I'm running X-P
and fc2 on the same HD. I didn't figure this out my self someone posted this in a thread on a linux forum. I don't know which one but I sure thank him.

You really shouldn't lose any data, it's quite safe. That being said, I don't want to say you definately won't lose anything, just incase by some freak occurance you do, and then hunt me down and kill me.

Well I tried this as a second install on XP. Sure it said error loading operating system, but by changing mode to LBA it does sort itself out and no data was lost.

Sure, I don't have Fedora working yet, but no data was lost. The only way I can see that you will lose data is if you overwrite a partition or jump to a conclusion and just reformat.