Dual Booting Question?

glaz · 07-01-2005, 02:53 PM

I want to build a brand new computer and have it be dual boot (Windows/Linux). I also want to get two harddrives.

My question is: Should I put Linux on one hard drive and Windows on the other, or should I put Windows and Linux on one hard drive and you the second one, to store all my music, videos, etc?

tuxrules · 07-01-2005, 03:18 PM

Its your choice but if you have two hard drives better keep them seperate. Mind you, this is my opinion...since I have that setup

ctkroeker · 07-01-2005, 03:27 PM

This is what I recommend:
1-) put windos on the first drive (make sur you install it first, as you will have a problm with booting later if you don't)
2-) then install the distro of you choice on the seccond drive.
Hope that helps, (worked for me).

glaz · 07-01-2005, 05:50 PM

I was thinking of keeping the second drive as the common drive for bot Linux and Windows, where i can keep all my crap and then just simply access it from Linux and Windows, would that be possible?

stefan_nicolau · 07-01-2005, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by glaz
I was thinking of keeping the second drive as the common drive for bot Linux and Windows, where i can keep all my crap and then just simply access it from Linux and Windows, would that be possible?

Yes, make sure the shared partition is formated to fat32, not ntfs or ext3

glaz · 07-01-2005, 06:08 PM

But as far as hard drive conflicts, would it cause more problems having two distros on one harddrive, vs having them on separate drives.

Also if I go the way of having distros on separate drives, is there a possibility of sharing files between the two?

tuxrules · 07-01-2005, 06:24 PM

Quote:

But as far as hard drive conflicts, would it cause more problems having two distros on one harddrive, vs having them on separate drives.

Nope...not that i know or have experienced.

Quote:

Also if I go the way of having distros on separate drives, is there a possibility of sharing files between the two?

Yes, you could make a required NTFS partition on windows drive and then mark rest of the space as a FAT 32 partition, which can have all your files.

You can then install linux on other drive and after installation you can mount your FAT 32 drive to access the files.

Tux,

stefan_nicolau · 07-01-2005, 06:34 PM

Quote:

But as far as hard drive conflicts, would it cause more problems having two distros on one harddrive, vs having them on separate drives.

No, the different operating systems are on different partitions.

Quote:

Also if I go the way of having distros on separate drives, is there a possibility of sharing files between the two?

Yes.

Keep in mind that the actual hard drive on which the data resides is not relevant, only the partition. Both OS's have access to all the hard drives, but:

On filesystems: Linux can read from ntfs partitions, but can't write. Windows can read from ext2/3 partitions, but can't write. Both can write to fat32, making it the ideal filesystem for a shared partition.

Both these setups are fine, you should choose the one that meets your needs:

Code:

[==linux(ext3)==================]  Keep the OS's sepatrate
[==windows(ntfs)================](each OS will have the exclusive ability to modify its data)
Good: avoids conflicts
Bad: hard to share files between the two

[==linux(ext3)==|=windows(ntfs)=]  Each OS has its own partition, but the user's files
[==data(fat32)==================]  are on a distinct, shared, partition
Good: share files
Bad: Might create a screwed up system if you start installing programs to the data partition.
One OS may modify the other's files.

If you use this scheme, make sure that no OS uses the data partition. Keep it exclusively for user-created files.

mkoljack · 07-01-2005, 06:50 PM

I have XP (40 gigs) and a fat32 shared partition (120 gigs) on one drive and Fedora Core 4 (35 gigs), Suse (35 gigs), and swap 3 gigs on a second drive.

It is not that important what goes on what drive as they are all separate partitions. I highly recommend Windows gets installed first, as NTFS, install the Linux OS second as ext3 or an appropriate Linux file system. Also, do not shortcut the shared partition (use fat32) because music, videos, personal data, etc take up space and leave enough room to grow your personal collections. This will be nice to access the data from either windows or Linux.

Good Luck and enjoy!

husnos · 07-02-2005, 01:16 AM

not really sure.............but i believe that if your linux is installed on a primary partition...........it improves speed since linux would be installed near the very beginning of your hard disk.......................not sure though

in this case.............put linux and windows on two seperate disks

as for your personal files..............you can always create their own seperate partition where they can be safe

stefan_nicolau · 07-02-2005, 08:00 AM

Quote:

not really sure.............but i believe that if your linux is installed on a primary partition...........it improves speed since linux would be installed near the very beginning of your hard disk.......................not sure though

The hard disk is round. The seek time is the same for all sectors. There is no speed improvement from being at the beginning.