fedora 5 on Samsung LapTop
 

Hey Guys!

I know virtually nothing about Linux. I've been using Windows from the beginning. But Learning about it I decided that when I get some free time I try it. SO I downloaded the dvd iso image of the fedora 5 for my Samsung LapTop i386. I've also got there an XP sp2 that manages all my info, which I must not lose. I would like to have both XP and the Fedora 5. But hearing the horror stories about people not being able to access their windows partitions after installing Linux I decided to ask the knowledgeable - you. Is there some software that could help me keep the dog and the cat in the same room without fighting?:) Something that would install my fedora 5 from windows XP...

Thank you!

I have not had problems accessing windows from my system which had XP and Fedora 5.

Just create a partition for linux and install. When I boot my computer (it uses GRUB bootloader) it comes up with a Menu that lets me choose Windows or Fedora. (I then choose Fedora :D ).

For a well written set of instructions look at
http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_cor...ion_notes.html

He has instructions that should help you get set up without problems. (I have always had good luck following his instructions, and he also has a forum for any help along the way).

He has links to software to partition your system. I used partition magic, but that costs money.
His instructions say to create one partition for Windows and then the linux partition (leave unformatted). I also created a third partition (If you have the space) that I formatted as Fat32 (DOS). This allows me to write and read from both Fedora and windows. You are able to load your Windows partion (usually NTFS) from linux and read the files but you cannot save any changes, so the DOS partition is where I put stuff I need on both systems.

They always play nice together if gnu/linux is installed second. I have had one problem when I needed to reinstall windows. That rewrote the boot sector and made it so I could not boot into Fedora (actually at the time I was using Red Hat), but that is the only time they didn't play nice together.

I would read Stanton Finley's guide and go for it, if you run into problems usually they can be fixed by asking here without ever losing data.

Good luck!