Hi people,

I have 2 hdd on my computer and the want to install open suse 11 on disk 2 partition 2.

On disk 1 there are 2 partitions c,d (both NTFS and basic disk). Windoze XP is installed in c drive and d drive is used for storing personal information.

Disk 2 is also have 2 partition (both NTFS but dynamic disk). I want to install linux on partition 2 (ie. z drive). I am not sure how to do that because last time i tried installing open linux i lost my windows but fixed it now.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...use-11-662303/

I dont want to lose any more data and want to install linux with dual boot with windoze xp.

Do i have to format my whole disk 2?
Can i install on disk 2 partition and how?

I get confused regarding partition. Please provide the details if possible.

thanking for reading.

Are both drives boot able or not ?
If it is than we can leave XP as it is.
Opensuse has basicly to options 1) Install proposal
2) Expert or customize install
If you go for the first option Defrag the c: drive first
Normally opensuse shrink the c:drive and create a dual boot
If you go for the second option you decide where to install in you,re case some where on SDB, where to write GRUB , where to make you,re mount point
In opensuse we normally make 3 partitions 1) SWAP let say same size as you,re RAM
2) LInux native let say 20 GB
3) home/dir for user data
If SDB is boot able write every thing on SDB = second drive and let SDA is first drive untouched
Hope this helpful

This tells what to do.

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Dual_Bo...NTLDR)_and_why

Yes both the disks are bootable. I want to install linux without lossing any data on the computer. rest is fine.i have abt 40 gb for linux in z drive.

Linux does not care about the boot flags, so I'm not sure how it is significant to talk about "bootable drives".

If you are concerned about losing data, be sure you have backups before trying to install anything.

As already discussed, the installer will give you options for deleting, creating, and formatting partitions. Note that terms like "C drive" are used in Windows to refer to partitions. In Linux, "drive" means the whole device.

By accident I delete the boot flag so it was off
I can not boot again from that drive until I put the boot flag at on
again.
This happens with all the LInux distros I try to install on it and boot from it
This happens to me because I delete the first primary partition using opensuse partitioning
Using gparted I put it on on again
If I remember the meaning of the boot flag well
Flag value 0 no OS on the drive
Flag value 1 one OS on the drive
FlaG VALUE 2 two or more OS on the drive

Now I am confused---I've never seen boot flags except on partitions....and there are only two states. Where would I see a "boot flag" such as you describe?

It is at the very beginning of the drive.
As I said it happens to me because I delete the first primary partition of two drives of mine
Recreating the first primary partition is not enough
The boot flag is still off
You need gparted or Partition Magic to put it on again
Suddenly I remember the old days when I often works with Partition Magic
I need them at on because GRUB is written on each HD , so I change in the BIOS the HD boot priority to change OS
But in my case it was not so hopeless because I use 3 drives with there own GRUB written on

What I find using GParted is the same boot flag for each partition as is found by fdisk. (The boot flag is the first bit of the partition table entry.) Gparted also allows you to set some other flags, none of which seem relevant to the question at hand.

To my knowledge, there are no flags to be set other than what appears in the partition table entries.

Again, my system boots various Linuxes on different partitions---none of these have the boot flag set.

I have only one question more when you change it to off did you boot from that drive so was GRUB on that drive ?
If you put GRUB on a other drive and boot from a other drive than I agree
that it will boot .

I have not found any boot flags for a whole drive---only for partitions.

I turned off all boot flags and re-booted into Linux with no problem.

I formatted a partition on disk 2 and installed linux to that partition. everything working well.