Dual Boot: Installing Fedora on new drive.
 

Hey Guys! I am a total linux newbie and I just got a new 80 gig HD that I want to install Fedora Core 3 on and dual boot it with my current XP install.

What I want to do is divide the new drive up 50 gigs for Fedoras, 10 gigs of FAT32 to share files between the os's, and 20 gigs NTFS for XP.
I am guessing I will need some sort of partitioning software to do the partitioning?

Is there anything special I need to know about installing Fedora to dual boot in this manner? Will this screw up my XP MBR?

My first thought was to set the BIOS to boot from the new drive that I install Linux on and then just edit GRUB to also point to XP.

Any advice would be appreciated....

Thanks,
Jeremy

It's been a while since I did a dual boot, but...

Pop in the second drive, then boot from the Fedora install CDs. Follow along until you get to the part where it asks you where to install. I always do a manual partition setup, which makes it easy to specify where to put whatever.
Point to the new hard drive (/dev/hdb probably) and make the partitions you want. You can probably make just your ext partition and leave the rest blank.

Letting Grub know you're dual booting is pretty straight forward, as well, but I don't remember specifics. I think it already knows what's on your first drive and you just need to verify.

After everything's loaded, it's probably easier to add the FAT32 and NTFS partitions from Windows than to find a third party app. (The FAT32 can also be set up with fdisk in Linux, or also during the initial setup.)

good luck!

matt

Else if you don't want to do that, get Partition Magic and partition how many ever GB you want for each and then follow fiservguy from:

Although I wonder why you want to create another NTFS partition if you already have one in the first HDD, I trust that you know what you are doing and I won't second guess you.

I am a Fedora Core 3 (FC3) user with a dual boot configuration. Here are my thoughts:

Regarding your questions:
The FC3 installation will guide you through the partitioning process, you don't need any additional partitioning tool. (Of course you could use it but I don't see why). Just unpack your HDD, install it and run the FC3 installation.

The FC3 install process will guide you through every step. There's always the advice to first install XP and use the first partition on the first HDD, etc, but it seems that that's what you have.

The FC3 install will install GRUB in the first HDD MBR (that's the default and my recommendation too). It will automatically identify the Windows Partition and will add Windows to the boot menu. There is always the risk of corrupting the MBR, so I strongly advice (VERY STRONGLY) that you have your Windows XP installation CD handy.
I'm not saying that it will happen for sure or that you should expect it to happen, just that if it happens it's better to be prepared.

Windows likes to be first. Although I haven't tried your suggested set-up.
Again, FC3 will write the grub configuration for you and will identify and include Windows.

Basically because my current 40 gig HD is 99% full and I want to mainly use Windoze to play games. So I plan on tranferring some of my music and photo files to the 20 gig NTFS Partition to store them and make room for games.

So will I use FC3 to create the FAT32 and NTFS partitions (I Know it may not be able to format them, but do I use it to create them?)

Yeah XP is installed on Hard Drive 1.

Cool... I have my XP install disk handy... so I shouldn't have too much to worry about.

So it should figure it all out basically on its own? I guess linux has come a long way since my last inistall attempt. (about 3-4 years ago)

What about the linux partitions (Swap, User, etc) what should those be or does FC3 have defaults for them?

Thanks so much for your help!!!
Jeremy

Don't you want to be able to read/write to those music/photo folders from Linux?

By the way, FC3 does not come with the NTFS drivers, you have to install them following the instructions on the Linux NTFS page. It's quite simple. The only downside is that you have to follow the steps every time you update the kernel.

I recommend installing FC3, then Updating everything including the kernel, then, install/configure anything that has to be compiled so it compiles agains the most recent kernel.

I recommend updating using yum. up2date seems to choke when confronted with a large number of updates. My guess is that it does not choke, its just that everybody updates at the same time and the servers get very slow.

You may want to create the NTFS/FAT32 partitions from Windows XP before running the FC3 install (If you need help here I can also help) , that way you can just accept the defaults from the FC3 install.

By default the FC3 installation will try to use all the available HDD space and will create the partitions required (swap, root, boot). You still have the option to not accept the defaults and create the partitions manually during installation.

If this is a home computer, defaults are OK, you don't need (or want) the complexity of too many partitions.

If it is a server with a particular purpose, you may want to adjust your partitions to the particular requirements (e.g. create separate /home, /var, /usr, etc) partitions.

It would be great if you could explain how to set the partitions in XP

I am guessing I will want 3 partitions:

1) Linux (50 gigs)
2) FAT32 (20-30 gigs)
3) NTFS (0-19 gigs) Not sure I need this partition as most of the files I will be moving to the second drive I will probably want available in Linux anyway.

I would guess linux wants to be the first thing on the drive but I dunno if its that important.

Thanks again for all your help!
Jeremy

You might start by installing Fedora Core in the space that you want (manually partition the sections so you leave space for the FAT32 and NTFS parititions. You can create the FAT32 and NTFS partitions in XP. Control Panel -> Performance and Mantainance -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management(Local)

Alternatively, You might create the empty partitions in FC and format at least the NTFS parition in XP. They may be in an extended partition that you created in FC. There can be up to 4 primary partitions. If you have all of your linux directories in the root partition, then they could all be primary partitions ( 1 swap partition, 1 root partition, 1 FAT32 partition and 1 NTFS partition ). If on the other hand you want to have a separate boot or home parition, then the 4th partition contain the extended partitions.

Good Luck.

Well the new drive is here and hopefully I will be attempting an install tonight.... Still not sure how I am going to the partitions.... I was thinking I just might buy super fdisk for $30.

Hopefully the install will go smooth.

I will let you know how it goes.....

Please send any partitioning advice you have before tonight I still need it.

Thanks Again!

Jeremy

There are so many ways to do what you are trying to accomplish. I would follow the advice of Raul Suarez.

Save yourself many headaches and know your partitioning plan before you begin any OS installation.

I have 2 hard drives:

-----Hard Drive 1 (hda in linux/c: in windows) -- 120 gigs:

hda1 -- 80 gigs -- NTFS -- Windows
hda2 -- 80 gigs -- FAT32-- Shared directory for Windows/Fedora 3

-----Hard Drive 2 (hdc in linux) -- 160 gigs

hdc1 -- 100 MB -- ext3 -- boot partition -- Fedora 3
hdc2 -- 40 GB -- ext3 -- / (which means root partition) -- Fedora3
hdc3 -- 3 GB -- linux swap
117 GB -- unformatted (will become fedora core 4 later)

I highly recommend copying all your music files, video files, etc to the fat32 partition. Don't move them right away. Copy first to be sure all configuration/permissions are set up correctly and that you can in fact read and write to the FAT32 partition.

Why you want to do this is: You can enjoy your collections in Windows and Linux and those files will be read/write accessible from both windows and fedora 3. So you have to hard drive space now, use it and leave some room for the future of your collections. Don't skimp on the size of the FAT32 partition!

I used windows tools to format NTFS as Raul Suarez suggested. Then the Fedora Installer will help you with the rest -- I think the Fedora install tools allow you to format a partition FAT32, if not use fdisk or gparted to format FAT32 after Fedora is installed. All are good ones -- fdisk or gparted are free.

Good Luck!!

Thanks for all the advice... I will let you know how it goes. I think I might spend some time transfering some of my pictures and music files to an old computer I have on the network.

I really don't wanna hear it from my wife if I lose all out digital photos.

-- Jeremy

Back up, back up, back up
 

Great idea to back up anything of value like you said. No matter how great things may go, it's better to plan for the worst case.

Good Luck!

use DiskDruid
 

Joe,
RedHat version 5 through Fecora Core 2 have a program called DiskDruid, so I am betting that it comes with FC3 as well.

Disk Druid is a graphical interface used for partitioning. At some point during the installation, the program will ask you whether you want to use fdisk or Disk Druid. Choose Disk Druid of course.

To get your fat32 patition on the drive, put it on BEFORE trying to install Fedora. Then in DiskDruid you can select "use remaining space". Good luck and have fun. tom o.

So if I was setting the partitions in XP....I'd plug in the drive and format the last 30 gigs FAT32 and leave the first 50 gigs untouched. Then start the FC3 install and let it loose on the 50 gig unformatted portion of the drive.

-- Jeremy

FAT32 Partition
 

Unless something has changed, you will not be able to format a partition as FAT32 from Windows XP. That will have to be done using the other tools.

You sure can format FAT32 from Windows XP.

I have a FAT32 to share between windows and linux. I created it from Windows XP using the disk management tool (As described above by jschiwal)

Glad to Hear It!
 

I have Windows XP Home Edition (6 mos. ago). When I was partitioning my drives, the exact tool we both used would not allow partitioning as FAT32. Glad to hear it, much easier that way.

Ok gang I got the drive installed and I created 2 partitions in XP one I left untouched the other I formatted in FAT32, but Linux won't let me install on the untouched partition. Basically I think it''s saying that its not a root partiton or something. Maybe I chose the wrong type of partition when I made it. I am not sure where to go from here.

Well I got FC3 installed by manually setting all the partitions just like the automated system would have just made the main partition smaller. So now should I partition and format the rest of the drive from XP? I wasn't sure how to do it in the FC3 setup.

-- Jeremy

Partitions
 

Sounds like things went OK. So at this point:

#1) You have the NTFS partition done and windows in it?
#2) You have the FAT32 partition done?
#3) You have Fedora installled -- it sounds like.

What else are you trying to accomplish in partitioning the rest of the drive?

uploadjoe, can you be a little more specific on what "more" you want to do? So far this is what I got:

1.) The partitions had been set manually and FC3 had been installed on the 50GB partition.

2.) The rest is 20GB in which you want XP installed. Yes, you should now insert you XP disc and install it on the unpartitioned 20GB.

--Abid Kazmi

Sorry for not being specific it was late. What happened was I was trying to alot 50 gigs to Linux and 30 gigs to FAT32. (I decided to skip NTFS on this drive). This is a brand new drive Windows XP was already installed on a 40 gig drive. (Which is what I have been using for 3-4 years up till this point).

I tried partitioning off the drive in Windows Prior to doing the install, but that didn't seem to fly with FC3. So I wiped all the partitions and did them manually. (I looked at FC3 would of did them if I would have done it all Automatically and just copied that except I made the EXT3 partition 50gigs), but at that point in FC3 I had no idea how to add a FAT32 partition. (sorry still dumb to all this linux stuff) So I've left 30gigs unpartitioned. My question is if I go into Windows, partition off, and format the 30gig portion of the drive will linux recognize it? Or do I have to do it some other way?

Hopefully this makes more sense. I appreciate everyones help so far. I am amazed at how smooth this has gone so far. Anaconda found all my hardware, my onboard audio and ethernet, and set things up to play nice with XP all with out me doing a thing. Now, I just need to get that FAT32 partition set up and learn how to do some of my day to day activities in Linux and I am sure I will never go back to XP except to play some games. ;)

-- Jeremy

FAT32
 

You can use either the windows tool or any of the linux ones mentioned earlier. I used the linux tool fdisk from command line. Also gparted is a great tool (nice gui) which can be installed using yum or apt-get.

After you format the partition, you will have to mount it by making an entry in /etc/fstab. This will allow t you to work in that partition from Fedora 3. You may also need some assistance with setting the permissions correctly for the partition. Highly recommnended to work with people in the forum on that step

Windows will automatically recognize the FAT32 partition. Good job on the successful install. Sounds like things are going well so far.

Welcome to Linux and Fedora 3!

I just wanted to say thank you to eveyone for their help. I have everything running fairly smoothly now... FAT32 parition is mouunted.

Thanks Again!

-- Jeremy

No problem. We're all here to help. Have fun on your new linux box!!

--Abid Kazmi