Hello,

I am learning about linux and am shifting towards using it as my primary OS (hopefully only, someday). Unfortunately I still need winxp for some research specific applications.

I have a 37 G HD on my laptop that I have partitioned as such:

2G /
1.2G swap
3.8G /usr
248m /boot
19G /home
10G /vfat

I have installed mandrake 9.2 and have attempted to install winxp to the /vfat partition, but during the install (a text-based mode) I was told that 38155 MB (?!) of disk 0 @ Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR] was needed, but the disk does not contain a winxp compatible partition, and then it asked me to create one.

What should I do? (Other than abandon my attempt to corrupt the disk with win..?) Diskdrake to resize the /home partition? Resize and repartition what was already slated for win (the /vfat)? And does xp need an ntfs partition in addition to a vfat partition?

Many thanks in advance for any assistance.

I have always first installed Windows and then Linux. It worked for me just fine. But it should go the other way too. If all fails, try Win XP first and Mandrake second (but I recommend RedHat 9).

For most it is easier to install windows first then linux. Windows will overwrite the bootloader so you will need to reinstall the bootloader and then modify to boot windows. If installing windows first then linux, Mandrake will configure the bootloader for both OS's

I would guess that the vfat paritition you created is not a primary and that is what the installer is looking for. It would be best to install XP on a NTFS partition but it isn't required.


To see how your disk is partitioned log in as root:
fdisk -l /dev/hda (thats a samll L)

Primary partitions are ID 1-4.
A logical is anything >4

If a primary partition ID is available you would need to delete the existing vfat partition and then shrink the extended paritition the 10GB in order to install windows.

Thank you very much. This is very helpful.

Below are the results of fdisk:

# fdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 267 2144646 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 268 4864 36925402+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 268 431 1317298+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda6 432 940 4088511 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 941 971 248976 83 Linux
/dev/hda8 972 3533 20579233+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda9 3534 4864 10691226 b Win95 FAT32

Seems like I should just install xp, and then linux after (where I will repartition). When partitioning, which linux partitions should be primary and which should be logical? Above it appears that the /boot and /usr are primary correct?

I was under the impression that you had to install Windows XP first or it wouldn't install becuase windows likes to be the only OS on the computer.

elhuecu
hda1 and hda2 are primary but hda1 is the only data parition. hda2 is your extended which in a nutshell is just the container for the logicals. On your drive the logicals are hda 5 - 9. You can not tell from fdisk what the mount point is for the partition. With linux it doesn't matter which partition is primary.

If you are going to start over then install windows first on a 10GB partition leaving the rest unallocated. The linux installer can autopartition if desired.


MustangCSA
I've installed W2k, NT, 95 and 98 with linux first and never had a problem. The key would be to parititon the windows drives at the same time leaving a primary partition available. I wouldn't think XP would be different.

michaelk,

First, thank you very much for your time and assistance. You are helping me to understandmy system IN ADDITION to helping me set it up the way I want to. I read another post of yours with a link to ntfsresize. On that website it mentions that mandrake 9.2 already has a version of ntfsresize built in. I tried to start over with a 10G partition for XP, but the minimum size I was allowed to allocate (in the mandrake install process) was 18 G! Seems a shame. I tried various "custom" partitioning methods (including resizing with diskdrake) to no avail. In the end I succumbed and now have more windows space than I'd like. Do you suggest downloading ntfsresize from that site (in process) and attempting to resize at this point? Again, many thanks for your helpful responses.

Hmm.. I always use fdisk and have never had a problem creating partitions of any size.

I have no real experience with ntfsresize. I've read several posts where it worked sucessfully.

If installing XP first you should be able to create any size partition. I installed XP Pro about a month ago and created and installed on a 10GB partition with no problems.

When you say you created the xp partition during installation, you mean that you did so with the windows fdisk program? Fdisk only works to create partitions when starting fresh, It cannot be used to resize correct?