Quote:
Originally posted by SimonZarate
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?
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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!