How to install Linux and Window together in a Computer?

I have already installed WindowXp in my system . Now I also want to install Red Hat Linux for learning Linux. But people tell my the default way will not make Window run , if Linux have problem .

So what is the correct way ?

1) Install Win XP
2) Have free unformatted space in Harddrive ( use fdisk)
3) Install Linux
Everything should workfine.

People say a lot of everything.
If you already installed XP, and if you only have one partition on your hard disk, it will not be the easiest way, but nothing is impossible. I don't know about Red Hat, but with Mandrake 9.1 or 9.2 it goes this way:

Run the installation from Mandrake CD and when it comes to partitioning choose "custom patritioning".
Resize the existing partition (shrink it!)
Create a new partition on the empty part.
Set mount point "/" on the new created partition.
The rest will be done by the program itself.
This method worked for me on several different computers without any trouble. But one never knows.......

Good luck!

(And.......When you begin to play around with Linux, you won't have time to open Windoors again, anyway!)

Install PartitionMagic (it's an easy-to-use program for creating partitions in windows without losing any data). In the "create a new partition"-wizard you specify the size of the new partition and the type (I used linux ext3). PartitionMagic will ask to reboot and will start executing some tasks to apply your changes...

Put your Linux cd1 and restart your pc. The Linux setup starts... one of the steps will be the partitioning setup. Select "Automatically partition" and in the next step "Remove all Linux partitions on this system", now the setup will only modify the partition you created earlier with PartitionMagic and won’t affect your non-Linux partition. That’s the reason why you need to specify Linux ext3 in PartitionMagic.

During the Linux installation, you’ll also have the possibility to easily configure the multiboot.

Hope this helps…

(By the way... you may want to install Fedora Core 1 (replaces Red Hat Linux).)

Koswo is right, but..
Only partition magic 8 will work with XP.
If you have an older version (for instance PM6) don't install it on an XP machine, you will have problems.
Regads
Zorba

zorba4, if you had problems with other versions of partition magic, something else was the reason, not PM. PM7 worked for me perfectly, no problem even with NTFS.

But that's not the point. Mankind can survive without MS software. Take a deep breath of Linux free air!

Thaith, I'm not sure which Distro you're using, but often the best way to install Linux with Windows on two partitions is actually to start over and format the lot, although this won't be much good if you only have a recovery disk for WinXP.

With all of this, I'm going to be assuming you have neither PartitionMagic nor any expert knowledge or Windows or Linux (don't worry, neither do I!)

So, first of all, make sure you have a full working version of Windows XP (most modern systems are bundled with it, I think Microsoft gave up on the activation key thing).

Make sure anything you want to keep is saved on floppy/ZIP/burnt onto a CD.

Create a boot disk from WinXP and boot from it. Type FDISK at the command prompt. Delete all your partitions. Create a new primary partition and make it as big as you need it to be for Linux. Then create an extended partition and make it so that it fills the rest of the hard drive up. Create a logical drive in the extended partition and use the full space you have available in the extended partition (just type 100%)

Just a note: You can do this also in Windows XP, although I wouldn't recommend it, as other tasks in Windows can interfere with the partitioning. Besides, it's always good to have a boot disk should FDISK go pear shaped.

Install Windows XP first. Reason for this is that the XP installer can wreak havoc with your Linux installation and more often than not will erase GRUB or LILO (depending on which you choose to use). When you've gone through the process of installing Windoze, the fun begins.

I'm going to assume that you're using RedHat 9 here. When you come to select partitioning, select Manual (Disk Druid) and do it yourself, as Anaconda (the installer) will have problems sussing out how to create the partitions with Windows on there. You need to create one swap (usually at least equal to the amount of memory you have, so if you have 256MB RAM, you need to create a swap partition 256MB big), a boot partition (I made mine 150MB, although RedHat 9 really only needs 70MB) and a root partition (which is just known as "/" and should fill up the remainder of your partition). DO NOT USE ANY PARTITION WHICH IS SHOWN UP AS "FAT32" OR "DOS" - that's your Windows partition.

With the complicated stuff out the way, install Linux and have fun :-)

By the way, if you want to access your Windows drives in Linux, goto:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=142605

...where two users very kindly helped me out :-)

what is the "boot" partition ?
I forgot it last time, and it seems to work (almost) perfectly without it.

The boot partition is basically the one that holds all the files necessary for the basic Linux system - kernel, grub etc. - anything that's needed for the system to boot. I can't imagine Linux running without it although I'd imagine it is possible on some computers, if the BIOS were so capable.

Thanks for the info, Jamyskis.
I am using lilo, not grub, that's why it works without /boot partition on my system.

I have no idea where to post this and if this has already been answered, but I would appreciate some advise.

I have a laptop where I have already installed RH 7 using CDs. It works and installed KDE.

I don't have RH version 9, but want to install it. I don't have the CDs, but can download the Isos.

I have a working ethernet connection and I have cleared enough room for 650MG on the laptop. I can download the first CD iso to the laptop, but how can I install it? WHen Ii try, I think apparently I need to have the tree directory structure. Do I need to somehow unpack the ISO image to the hard drive to do this?

Or, would it be better to ftp the whole thing from an ftp site. I have tried this, and when I fill in the site name and location of the files, it says I don't have the right disk format or something.

The third option is I have another machine where I have all 3 iso images. Can I unpack the tree to this machine and install from here via ftp.

Anyone?

Here's my advice...... We all know someone with a burner. Have them burn the cds for you. That way you have them in the future if something goes wrong, if you want to install on another pc, and it's just easier. I think you could even buy them off the internet extremely cheap.

Rylinkus is right :
The iso's are made that way that you directly burn them on a burner (with Nero you "load" and then "create CD").
Then, you boot on the first CD, and in the first menu you say "full install", "use existing partitions", and choose not to format your data partitions if you have some.

Yes, I know all that. I appreciate the advise, but I am trying always to learn new things.

I have done installs before using CDs.

There are other ways to do installs than just using CDs.

You can install from another machine or site using ftp, or you can put the ISO images on a machine, unpack these, and install from a hard disk on the machine.

I would like to use either of these methods.

That is the help I'm looking for.

OK, rockee,
I just would like to understant your degree of need of use.
In an ideal world, I would
1) put my ISO files on a server, acting as a jukebox server and use them.
2) boot on floppy, give the jukebox server name as nfs server.
3) is this what you want to do ?

There is another way of doing this kind of things, more classic :
1) Unpack the ISO files on an nfs server (my server was a Windows 2k nfs server, I unpacked with it with the daemon tools).
2) starting the first iso (still with daemon tools) tells you how to create the network boot floppy disk (choose the network option).
3) booting on that floppy on the final machine will ask for the name of the server.
4) If you have the full Mandrake distro, this will be successful. If you happen to have a "free" Mandrake distro, some files will be missing, you will have to go to the Mandrake site to get the missing files.

Steps 1, 2 and 3 worked fine for me. I had the "free" linux distro, I got sad at step 4 and need to be motivated again.