Installing Linux on Machine with WinXP and NTFS
 

Hi:

I have Dell Machine, Intel Pentium 4, 2.4 Ghz, 256 MB Ram and 40 GB hard disk.

I am installed Windows XP Home Edition with NTFS system file. I try to install Linux Mandrake 9.1 on this machine and the installer say that can't locate the system file.

Is possible that the problem is the NTFS system file? What i can do to install Linux?

You should try to reinstall XP on Fat32 instead of NTFS. That's what I did and it worked well.
Good luck!
Ether

" the installer say that can't locate the system file."

when does it say this and what is the exact error message you get? I don't think this has anything to do with XP and NTFS.
What you will have to do is make room on the harddrive - i.e. shrink the ntfs partition - so that you can install mandrake. The installer has the ability to do it though you should at the very backup important files to you and do a defragment before you go ahead with the installation.

This is the exact message:

"I can't find a valid filesystem (tried: ext2, vfat, reiserfs)

I agree... it doesn't sound like a message related to NTFS. You can probably solve it by running windows defrag, and then re-install.

Also, you would be most safe using a third party partitioning program like Partition Magic. At the very, very least, go into windows and run a defrag, but make sure the "make programs run faster" (or whatever its called) is NOT checked. This will help ensure that the defrag program will move everything up to the front of the disk so that when Mandrake re-sizes it, its not likely to chop anything important.

Re: Installing Linux on Machine with WinXP and NTFS
 

Hi,

I have the two of them on my drive. You should do this steps:
1. backup all your data
2. erase all your hdd partitions (better use PQ Magic to do that, install it and create the discs)
3. create your linux & windows partitions, for a 40Gb drive I'll do it like that :

/dev/hda1 64Mb / boot linux ext3 primary
/dev/hda2 10Gb C drive windows NTFS primary
/dev/hda3 rest of free space extended
/dev/hda5 256Mb swap linux swap logical
/dev/hda6 10Gb / (linux root partition) ext3 logical
/dev/hda7 rest of free space D drive windows NTFS logical

This will create for you :
- on windows C:\ the system partition (primary)
D:\ the personal data partition (logicaly)
(I strongly recommend you to use NTFS and NOT FAT32!!!)
- on linux you'll have the minimum to install linux :
/boot - the linux boot partition where will reside your active kernel & other stuff, your drive's first partition, primary !
/ - the linux root partition where you'll install linux
swap - the linux swap partition
here you can change their dimensions as you like and also add those for linux :
- /tmp - for temporary files (minimum 512Mb)
- /var - environement variables & log files (minimum 512Mb)
- /home - your personal data partition
I recommend you to create the linux (/home) & windows (D:\) personal data partitions because if your system crashes you allways have your personal datas.
4. make active the /dev/hda2 (C:\) partition and install your windoze xp
5. make active the /dev/hda1 (/boot) partition and install Mandrake linux 9.1 and when you install the boot loader lilo or grub do not choose the master boot record - MBR (in our case /dev/hda) and choose the active boot partition (in our case /dev/hda1 -> /boot). This will prevent you to reinstall the boot loader in case you reinstall windoze (it's enough to make active /dev/hda2 and reinstall windoze and when you've finished making active /dev/hda1 will do all as before).
Tips :
- before partitioning the disk be sure that you've cleaned the MBR with a dos boot disk typing "fdisk /mbr"
- use PQ Magic to create the partitions
- use a dos bootdisk to activate the partitions (pq magic will hide some of them and you have to reboot and unhide them to make your system works again).
If you still have questions ask me!

Cheers!

i assume u have atleast 2 logical ntfs drives (say C: and D:),

backup important files in d: to c:; now use win xp cd and boot from it; now resize d:; then format d:;

now boot from linux cd and install; lilo will overwrite mbr and ensure that lilo is configured properly (lilo identifies xp ntfs entry as "nt", rename to "windows" if u feel so, this can be done later from "linuxconf" command)

What I did:

i use both xp and mandrake 9 and have faced no problems, i did the following:
1) bought a 40GB HD
2) created 3 partitions (1 primary and 2 logical) on 24GB from XP CD-ROM
3) installed XP on 24GB
4) installed Mandrake 9 on 16GB from Mandrake 9 CD-ROMs

not bad, but better made all boot partitions as primary (you're luck that with win2k M$ made that posible on windoze, to boot from a logical drive)

I'll recommend, as you can create only 4 primary partitions on intel platphorms, to create the first 3 boot partitions for 3 OSes and the 4th to make it extended and create in it as logical drives the rest of the partitions.

all OSes knw how to access a logical drive but not all of them know how to boot one like that, this is my advice and this is what I do all the time.

Buy a hard drive on eBay or some place like that, replace your winXP hdd with that, install it on there. Do a search on google for dual booting linux (or someting like that) to dual boot into winXP. If you can't find it, e-mail me at alex4762002@yahoo.com

If the installer says it can't find the file system, surely it may be an install disc problem.

If the "xp install" is working Ok, then there is nothing wrong with that. The message suggests that it can't find the file system on the CD(s) to install, whether it's exts, reiser or whatever.

Have you looked into confirming the Md5.sum from the download locations ?

Becasue if that isn't correct, then it indicates "bad cd's", which isn't an uncommon problem.

regards

John

Are we just circling here? 9.1 MD does not recognize NTFS file system? Thats why u need to format or a second drive. I think 9.2 started to support NTFS. Also I think you need to keep in mine as to which is the maximum cylinder(boundary) that Linux can be installed and still be able to boot?

Nothing to do with xp ntfs. i have same rig all idid to install 9.1 was insert disc followed all the instructions 9.1 installed I sujjest you may have faulty disk. Mandrake can read ntfs but cant write to it. Where did you get disk
Regards Sharkee

You should try to reinstall XP on Fat32 instead of NTFS. That's what I did and it worked well.
Good luck!
Ether

i tried doing that once (for a situation other than linux) and my athlon 3000 ran about like a pentium 100. pretty sure xp is only for ntfs, another one of M$ tricks to try and weed out linux. if you cant install linux on ntfs, most ppl will just take windows.



but thats not a monopoly!!!

I know this advice has been given elsewhere by me and others, so sorry for the repetition, but its worth noting that one really good strategy for linux and win on the same hd is to create 3 partitions, a ntfs for windows, a fat32 for sharing data between the two OS's, and a linux partition (I like reiserFS, but its up to you). Then the fat32 partition is available for read and write by both.

# 6 post by Piratu seems to fit my situation somewhat, but I've lost Boot magic. Is my solution to follow recommendations in post #6?
My specific problem is-

I installed partition Magic 8.0 and Boot magic without problems. However, I then disabled Boot Magic thinking that's what I should do. I installed Linux Mandrake 9.2. Now can't get BM back. Trying to open Boot Magic gives me a message-
"Setup cannot find the location of where Boot Magic was originally installed. Make sure the volume Boot Magic is installed on or is visible, and assigned the same drive letter as at the time of install."
I probably muddied the problem more by going to partition Magic and deleting the "E" drive partition where BM was shown, thinking this would delete BM & let me reinstall it. What do I do now?
I think if I could uninstall and reinstall Boot magic, I'd be OK, but remove doesn't work from add/remove or Add Remove Pro because they can't find Boot Magic either. I'm waiting for a response from the BM folks, but no response yet.
I see that when I used Partition Magic, I set up 4 primary partitions-
Partition Type
Swap Space2(*) Linux Swap,
(*) unallocated (this is where BM was/is?
local disc (C:) NTFS
local disc (*) Linux Ext2

Did I also goof when I set those up- using all primaries?
Could I boot from bootloader GRUB if I install that?

I've got XP Home on a Dell 4500S. Any ideas?
Thanks