partition strattegy for XP on 1 HD and two linux on 2nd HD
 

Dear Sirs,
As I am not an expert, I would like your advise on the best partition strattegy for installing a second linux distro (Gentoo) in a new hard drive.

I currently have Windows XP "running" on an original 160 GB which I need to preserve for my wife, and I just installed a RH9 on a new 120 GB hd.

If possible, I would like to know a good strattegy that would allow me in the future easily migrate to other distro, erase any distro that I dont like, in a way as transparent as possible...

Also I would like some advise on best boot loader strattegies... Currently, I have lilo installed on MBR which I heard is not a good one. And in fact, when WindowsXP is booted, it insists in recovering, which screws all my boot, so that I cannot boot to any os at all...

Thanks a lot,
Luiz

I'm not an expert either, but I have some experience.

Just install the new distros over the old ones. If you use a regular installer CD like on SuSE or Mandrake, you can tell the installer to delete and reformat the partitions with the old Linux system on them.

The experiences I've had with LILO and GRUB make me a GRUB fan. GRUB is easier to reconfigure if necessary. When you install a new distro on top of an old one, the installer should simply write a new MBR that will point to the appropriate GRUB executables on your Linux disk. It should also detect the windows install and adjust GRUB accordingly.

If at some point you really flub your MBR (which I've done before), remember to boot with your XP install CD, press "R" a few times while it's loading the setup programs, choose the Recovery Console, and at the prompt type "fixmbr". Then you can reinstall GRUB with the Linux installation CD you have for your system.

I'm a little surprised that Windows keeps rewriting the MBR on its own. I haven't seen that before. I do know that if you attempt to install or reinstall Windows, it *will* rewrite the MBR, but it should'nt be doing this on its own. Is this another SP2 "feature"?

Windows re-writing the MBR? I haven't seen that in my time.

Are you sure it's Windows doing it? You normally have to run the FixMBR command from a Dos prompt.

Strange...