Windows Xp + BackTrack Beta 2 (Dual Booting)
 

Hey well this is my first post so sorry if I seem annoying. Well I run Windows Xp Service Pack 2, but I am also wanting to dual boot with BackTrack Beta 2, I can currently use the live CD to use Backtrack (without internet)

I have 1x 80gb and 1x 40gb HDD's could someone direct me on how to use the 80gb for Windows (I know how to do this) but then use 20gb of the 40gb HDD for Linux and the remaining 20gb as kind of a part of which windows and Linux can see? if that is possible.

Yet another part to this question I am connecting to the internet using a "Wireless USB 54g Linksys" device A.K.A WUSB54G. I don't know how to install the drivers onto the BAcktrack but forst off I would like BackTrack installing :P (Sorry to sound so bossy, I didn't know how to word it)

Anyways help is always appreciated.

Thanks :)

Well having looked at a distrowatch link for backtrack, you might well have some learning to do as it's based on Slackware/SLAX - slackware is not that friendly when it comes to installation as it tends to need considerable manual configuration - very good for learning though.

I'm thinking that you might need to do some reading at the main backtrack website as there'd normally be some install instructions - Plus you might have to work out whether it will assist you in making the necessary partitions or whether you'd have to do that manually.

You might of course, choose something different, and considerably more newbie friendly, at the install stage. I'm thinking PCLinuxOS or maybe one of the *buntus (Kubuntu might be easier as the KDE front end would be more familiar if you're used to windows).

Oh and then theres the potential issues of partitioning. You say that you want to use half the 40 gig drive for the linux and half for a shared type partition. I'd suggest something slightly different, and chop 20 gigs off the windows drive and format that as FAT32 (I believe NTFS support continues to improve, but there may still be some "write" issues - both windows and a linux distro should write to FAT32 without any problems). Plus it also depends on what you want to do under linux. A default install would probably give you the / (aka root) partition and /swap. I much prefer to have a seperate /home as well, so all those bits that you'd make without thinking like address books with email addresses, personal data, etc etc aren't lost if you trashed the system - they live in the /home whereas any repair/re-install/other distro, can be installed to the / paritition. Then as long as the repair/re-install/new distro has the same packages/applications then it normally "just" works - with nothing lost.

As they say on the TV game shows, the choice is yours.

regards

John

Hey, also my first post and I realize this thread is a little dated but I stumbled on it while looking for similar help. I wanted to install Backtrack 4 on top of XP without having to reinstall windows or lose any data. I found this great article on how to do it on a EEE netbook. It worked even on my Toshiba:

sorry here's the URL:


http://www.computereverything.net/20...ux-windows-xp/