hello everyone, I decided to install Fedora Core 4, i'll be using it as a regular desktop, for mainly video editing, programming, and basic stuff. I was wondering if its better to go to manual route for paritioning or just use automatic? Will the automatic paritioning still make a swap parition etc? Thanks! Oh yes and also, will the automatic ask me where i want to install the bootloader? because i'm going to install the boot loader onto this harddrive which will be linux only but i want it to be able to access windows as well. I'm going to make this the primary harddrive (linux) and windoze the 2nd harddrive. I have SATA harddrives.

Yes doing it automatically will create a SWAP partition. It will also ask you where to install your bootloader.

I suggest that you do the partitioning manually, mainly because it gives you a better clue on whats what on your harddrive plus you will be able to make a partition for your /home directory, that can come in handy if you need to do a reinstall. It's also recommended to make a seperate partition for your /boot dir.

Have fun

I have personally installed FC4 few days ago and chosen the automatic partitioning. I don't recommend it at all. Fedora partitions the disk via LVM (logical volumes) by default, which is IMHO useless for normal user. Moreover, unexpected problems occurred soon after that - about 5-10 hours of uptime, the root filesystem (/) remounted automatically as read only... and only restart helped.

SO:
- Set your new drive to use with Linux as bootdrive in BIOS
- run the install. I expect that this new drive is located on PRIMARY MASTER IDE cable, so it will be named "/dev/hda" (BUT you may have it different!)
- Partition the drive by hand, create 100MB small volume ext3 for /boot (first on disk), then about 10-20GB for root partition (/), and then almost the rest for /home (your future user data). Finally, at the end, leave some space for swap (200MB-2GB, it depends on how do you need memory...)
Please, note, that you can create only FOUR primary partitions. Better should be create PRIMARY small /boot, and then make EXTENDED partition in which locate logical partitions - /, /home, ...
- Let GRUB install into MBR of this linux drive, and let the installer make there an entry for Windows...

The result should be that you will fill entire new drive with linux partitions, and you will boot into GRUB every time, when you will be able to choose OS you want to actually boot.

Thanks guys. brozkeff, i have sata so i don't have a master/slave persay, but its the same concept i just have to have to change it in the bios i believe. This drive is going to be 200 gigs. I also have 1 gig of 533 Dual Channel DDR ram so how much should I leave for SWAP?, so should i still keep the same recommend size for each parition u said? 100MB for ext3 for /boot this is will GRUB will be installed i'm asssuming
10-20GB for r00t (/)
then the rest for (/home)
oh yeah and leave some for swap
I'm a linux nublet, and i've never done a manual parition. Is there any tutorial out there?

I understand there is:
A Fedora Core system has at least three partitions:

*

A data partition mounted at /boot
*

A data partition mounted at /
*

A swap partition

but thats the extent hah, and i understand that the swap is only used if all ur physical ram is being used.

Yes you are right about the SWAP file use. As a thumbrule you make the SWAP area twice as big as your ram, in your case 2 x 1GB

Use only 50MB for /boot, you wont need more space that that unless your planning to boot multiple kernels.

Make 7GB for your / partition

The rest is to use for your /home partition.

The thing that brozkeff mentions about setting your BIOS to boot linux sounds odd. No need to mess with your BIOS if your harddrive is detected, and system is booting just fine.

You can find a tutorial for partitioning Fedora 4 here:
http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/fedora...-guide-en/fc4/

Have fun

Awesome thanks antiloaded!! As soon as UPS gets its arse here i'll jack in the new harddrive and new OS! Antiloaded, I'm using SATA, and i want Linux to be the Primary Harddrive, right now Windows is, which is a 160 SATA. The reason i want Linux to be is i don't want to mess with windows harddrive's MBR, i had problems before and it f'ed up the MBR. So this way, if Linux HD is Primary, i can install the bootloader to that harddrive's MBR and in theory when I boot up, it should take me to the bootloader instead of linux/windoze, is that correct?

Also do i set all my paritions to the same File TYpe? like /boot /home /root ext3 and how do u know which file type is perfered? thanks! Some say ReiserFS is perfered. But like all install how to's usually say use ext3

Are You planning to switch the drives manually between Linux and WindowsXP? Or are you planning to have both drives connected at the same time?

If you install the Linux to your 160GB drive and choose to install the bootloader in the MBR then it wont effect your Windows installation if it's on another drive.
It's recommended to install windows before the Linux though.

And yes when you boot up, it will take you to the bootloader. Be aware of the names of the hardrives for bootloader install. The names when using SATA is sda,sdb...so on

Have you been using Grub or Lilo bootloader earlier (when experiencing problems)?

I can recommend using Lilo. I have been using that bootloader for years dualbooting Linux/WindowsXP, and the only problems i've had was when I messed too much with it despite it was allready working! (my handicap )
Well I also found out that Lilo is quite easy to restore.

If you have 1GB of ram, its not usully necesary to create a 2 gig swap partition because most of it will go unused. I have 512meg on my PC and 1 gig swap and when using memory hungry apps I have never seen more than a few megs used for swap.

Actually i was planning on not dual booting but having windows on 1 harddrive and linux on the other! Can i still install the bootloader to the Linux drive and then set that drive to primary? then when i boot up it should boot up to linux and the bootloader so i can choose windows harddrive to boot up if needed.

Thanks for the info reddazz

You wont have to set your linux drive as the primary to have it boot up leaving the windows drive behind.

You can just install Linux to your second drive plus your bootloader (also to your second harddrive).

The bootloader will despite beeing installed to your second harddrive, detect windows as an option on your primary and setting is an option to boot.
Bootloader install options can be checked out here:
http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/fedora...er-others.html

Maybe I should note one thing again - when you have two harddisks, you should specify (in BIOS) from which one start booting! Now, it's set tu the first disk with Windows. When you add second one, it will still read MBR from the first disk. And you don't want Lilo or Grub on the firts disk MBR, but on the new one. So, set up correct hard disk boot priority in BIOS so MBR will be read from the new one. There, you can write the LILO or GRUB, and from it it can link as well to Windows loader on first disk.

WHen you one day remove the Linux disk, you will stillb be normally able to boot into Windows (because bios will then magically use the old MBR written by windows...)

And one more thing to mention - Do not change the disks physically! Windows won't boot anymore if you e.g. switch current Windows disk to another cable!

About Grub vs Lilo:
Personally I prefer GRUB to lilo. Grub is easier to set and IMHO is more suitable for non-expert.