Hello I'm new to Linux & after trying a few live Cd's have decided to go with Mandriva.
I was looking to install on a separate hard drive however I have 3 in total & am unsure of how to do it.

My machine is a Compaq presario 2.8 processor, 1 gig ram.
A Radeon 9200 128mb graphics card.
Soundblaster Audigy 2 & Live Drive.

WinXP is currently installed on the biggest drive 120gig. as c:/
The recovery console is 3.42gb as d:/

I also have a 80gig drive for music/downloads etc partitioned as g:/ & h:/

For the purpose of installing Linux I also included a new 6 gig drive which shows up as e:/

What I hoped to do was install just the Mandriva O/S on the small e:/ drive
whilst keeping my windows c:/ and my music/downloads d:/

I have already installed a version of Mandriva 2005 on this little e:/ drive but somehow managed to mess up the boot sequence.
I think this is because I installed everything to this drive & no boot loader to select which O/S to use. Wrongly presuming it would show up alongside my windows & Recovery console when I switch on. It is installed but not accessable & no longer shows up under XP.

So getting down to it, I am currently downloading the 2006 RC2 version. & try the install again in the correct way.
Trouble is with so many drives I'm really unsure where to install everything.
Would i be right in saying C: windows will be hda
the 80 gig g: & h: music/downloads will be hdb1 and hdb2
with the Mandriva install going on e: now called hdc

Does that sound right?
Will I need to install a boot loader onto the c:windows (or hda)
Or does it go on the Mandriva drive? (hdc)
Also do I need to Format the drive for Linux as FAT32 ? All my drives are currently NTFS Does this mean I wont be able to write to my other drives from Mandriva Linux?

This bit is worrying me as I have wiped all my drives & XP trying to install a version of Linspire a while ago.

Sorry to waffle on so much, I just want to make sure I don't mess things up again!

First off 2006RC2 is a beta version and if you're new to Linux and just want a stable working system don't use it. After all if you'd never used Windows before you wouldn't install the latest Longhorn beta you'd install Windows XP. So either use 2005LE or wait for 2006 to be released.

As for the boot loader you really have 2 choices. Either put it on the MBR (ie. /dev/hda) where it will replace the Windows bootloader (it will have entries to allow you to boot WIndows and you can set Windows as the default after the install in the Mandrake Control Centre). Otherwise make a boot floppy and you have to put that in every time you want to boot Linux.

As for doing this boot off your 2005LE install CD and type 'linux rescue' at the splash screen. You may be able to move the boot loader or create a rescue disk using the rescue mode, otherwise just reinstall it.

linux installs normally see the hard drives in strict order i.e. first would be /dev/hda, second /dev/hdb etc etc. I thing that the bits on the first (xp) drive would show as /dev/hda1, /dev/hda2.

Whichever drive you want the linux on, shouldn't really matter, but for the bootloader to see all OS's, as I understand it, it should be placed on the first part of the first hdd (hda), then it should offer you the choice of which OS too boot into.

If you think you've screwed up an install and find you can't get into the windows, don't panic, just boot the mandriva disc again and when it asks about installing or advanced/additional options, just hit the key it says for that (not install), and then type "rescue" (no quotes) and then just follow the instructions for re-installing the windows bootloader (it should also work in reverse).

Normally mandriva will detect the windows install. Though that may be different with multi hdd systems, you can always boot it and see, but if you can't work it out, just exit the install. And note any errors/questions etc that you might have and ask here.

Oh and as far as I'm aware, linux will still not talk to NTFS by default - it can read it, but writing to NTFS partitions is still a work in progress and takes some doing. Hence for ease, if you have a FAT32 partition, both OS's can write to that. If they are then mounted at boot, you should be able to do stuff and get too it from either OS (that means that it does require an entry in the /etc/fstab file - I have to presume that if mandriva has detected a FAT32 partition, it should make the entry for you).

Theres no reason why any linux install will touch the XP install, unless you tell it too, other than writing the bootloader to the first part of the MBR - where it overwrites the windows bootloader, so that you can then boot both OS's (yes it is possible to use the windows bootloader to boot a linux OS but that's something that I understand needs some prior knowledge).

So, if my primary bootable windows drive is NTFS, I won't be able to install a boot loader on my MBR for that drive when I install mandriva?

I'll need a boot disk... ugh... i hate boot disks..... i hated them back in dos days, hate them now!

No this will work fine. Select the boot device as '/dev/hda' and it will install in the MBR without damaging your NTFS partition or Windows install. You don't need to use a boot disk.

Amazing! I just installed Fedora Core 4! I'm enjoying linux so far, but I'm downloading Mandriva 2005LE and Ubuntu 5.04 to try out a few distributions to see which one I like best.

Thanks for all the great advice you guys give on this forum!

Well done my friend. Excellent.

So the next little exercise for you to find out about, is partitioning. No I don't mean some mega great server/commercial scheme of having stuff like /, /swap, /home, /boot, /usr, /var, /tmp, /opt etc etc etc. In my mind, for "normal" systems, thats a complete PITA.

No, a smaller local set up of /boot (though thats not always necessary as if you don't have a /boot partition, it is often made as a directory in the root partition), the ubiquitous /swap, a / (root) partition and a /home.

The reasons for this idea ? It's a good idea to keep boot files seperate from the main system i.e. security/damage reasons. The swap, well thats the swap - I know that given the amount of RAM some have installed these days makes it increasing unnecessary, but lots of distros still need it as a default thing (plus you never know when you might want to try an app that munches it's way through your RAM).

The / or root partition is obvious, thats where the main guts of the system goes, and a /home partition for your user account(s).

the idea/suggestion of seperate /home is so that you can change distros at will, without loosing any data, customisations, address books etc. So when you install/re-install/change a distro, you just don't format the /home partition and you make sure that you have an entry for it in the fstab file which allows it to be mounted at boot time. Obviously, if you like too have loads of short cuts/icons on your desktop you have to make sure that the installer puts the same apps in the newer system. Otherwise the shortcuts/icons just don't work i.e. they just do nothing and give you an error.

I learned this little trick after about 9 months (and about 3 or 4 distros - and many unhappy hours trying to remember logins, app's, email addresses etc etc).

So I'd suggest that it's worth looking into. It's not too difficult at all.

regards

John

Wow, that was a lot to take in... i'm still trying to understand the structure of linux partitions and directories and not quite sure how to do everything you just mentioned... i can't even figure out how to install the new version of firefox haha! I knew it was going to be more difficult than windows, but didn't think it was going to be this weird... it's almost like having a gui slapped over DOS. sorry for all the MS references, but it's inevitable, since i've used nothing but MS products since i was younger.

Thanks for the help and i'll do my best to mess around and figure out a whole new set of commands.

I'm sure there's a list of those around here somewhere.

On Fedora:
Easy
You should read this: http://www.fedorafaq.org/#getsoftware

hmm, that's funny, because i already tried that and it said something like "unknown package" or something. I'm in XP right now so i can't test it, as I'm in the midst of completing a Lab Report for my Applied Mechanics course... No more VECTORS PLEASE!!! ahh!

I'll try it again though, thanks!

Umm how do I edit the default OS in Grub? It boots into linux right now all the time, but how do I set it up so it'll boot my other OS(XP) automatically? I like linux and all, but I'm just not yet ready to have it be my main OS yet =) Have to learn a little more before I do that!

Thanks

Open the file /boot/grub/grub.conf using a text editor as root. Change the line 'default=0' to 'default=x' where x is the number of the entry for your Windows install. So if its the second entry it'll be 1, if its the 3rd it'll be 2, etc.

thanks so much! i'll try that when i get home.