Hi guys

Hoping that you might be able to clarify something for me.

I've used linux a couple of time to get interested in wanting to install mandrake 10.1 on my home pc. I want to have a dual boot system as win XP is already on the single 145Gb hard drive.

I have looked through the forums and am unsure of the best way to install mandrake.

I have 2 options open to me.

1 - During the install use the free space on window option. Now what exactly does this do??? I assume that this will create a partition for me? How big?

2 - I create a partition on my hard drive pre linux install (I have partition magic and have used this in the past so some experience). How big should I make the partition for linux? Some post say 5Gb, 8Gb, some say 10Gb... How much room does linux take? I'm assuming that this should be a fat32 partion as I believe linux cant use NTFS?

If I wanted to gain access to the data on the ntfs partion I belive that I would need to create a fat32 partion (say 1GB) to use as a transfer folder. Correct?

Finally - will the mandrake installer set up my pc so that on boot up I'm presented with os options, or do I need to manually alter the windows boot.ini file?

Thanks for clarification

Well I'm little more than a newbie myself, but I'll have a go at helping out here. Please listen to others with more experience before you follow all my suggestions...
No This is not correct. Only if there is spare "unallocated" (i.e. not formatted) space on the HD will this option be of use.
If you ask 10 people how much space you'll need you will get 10 different answers. Personally I would say that 10Gb would be ample for any distro (NOT including data). For data here's what I suggest...

Linux can read NTFS but can't write to it so what I would do is:
1) Use partition magic to find how much room you have left out of you 145Gb after Windows has had its lunch...
2) Use Partition Magic to create an EXT3 partition for Mandrake of about 10Gb
2a) [Personally I would create another EXT3 partition for my /home (linux data) storage but this is optional - read up / ask questions]
3) Create another (small) partition as "Linux Swap" - Roughly double the size of your RAM (e.g. 250Mb RAM -> 500Mb Swap). If in doubt 500Mb is usually OK.
4) Use Partition Magic to create another partion - this time FAT32 - with as much space as you have left (give or take a few Gb). This partition will be accessible (read & write) to both Windows XP and Linux. This is where you can then store all your data from either system.
5) Make sure you know which partitions are which and then boot the Mandrake CD and opt for "Manual Partitioning" - select your EXT3 partition for Mandrake to install into with the Swap partition for Swap.
6) The Mandrake install will detect your WinXP installation and will create a "Bootloader" (Grub) which will allow you to decide which system to use at boot-up.
7) Once you are up and running you will need to edit your /etc/fstab file in Mandrake to give you easy access to to "shared" data partition. There is plenty of information about how to do that in this forum - just ask if you get stuck.
8) Good Luck!


Hope that helps

Mark

I'd just backup your data, then dfisk and partion it !

It will use "free space" within ( = at the end of) your existing ntfs partition to create new partition(s) for your Linux install. DEFRAG your Windows first! (By default it will use about 10G, IIRC. Maybe less.)
If you want to "Do It Yourself", just make a *blank*, unformatted partition past your Windows partition. Let the Installer make the actual ext3/reiserfs/whatever partitions for Mandrake.

As for size, you *can* install Mandrake in less than 2G of space, but that gets pretty cramped fast, especially if you want to install additional software. My suggestion would be a swap partition of ~512M, a "/" (root) partition of ~5G, and a "/home" partition of 5G+. (My /home is 10G, and I'm thinking of expanding it. )
You can *read* ntfs data fine. But writing it can be unsafe, so distros normally only mount ntfs partitions as read-only. You can check out "captive-ntfs", which uses existing Windows drivers to write ntfs data. It seems to work quite well, according to some who have used it. Or, you can use a FAT32 "transfer" partition.
Mandrake will set up LILO by default. Tell it to be installed in the MBR, and it will let you boot into either Windows or Linux, at your selection during boot.

Thanks for your responses.

When I get some free time I shall endeavour to install!!!

Looking forward to it

1 - Use partition magic ( use fragmentation before ), and leave an unalocated space.

2 - I'm doing all my daily stuff with mandrake and playing on windows, thus 80% space for linux the rest for windows. Depends on what u are doing
As weel as other distro , Installation process is easy in mandrake.

I've installed LILO and it has been installed by default in MBR without any problem.

Regards,

Pierre