I have downloaded Mandrake 10.2 b and have burned the iso;s on cds... I am ready to install mandrake but I need some help with the partitioning procedure...
Well I have 2 disk 40GB each... Every HD is half full...
Which one do you think its better to install... The one with XP or the other with data?

Now about partitioning... Is partiotioning needed?
Mandrake has a built in partitioning system... What values should I set? And how many partitions wil I create...?

And I have heard about Lilo and Grub? Lilo or Grub for bootloading?

I need some help on partitions especially as I have never partioned any drive...


Thanks in advance...
Christos

First, be aware that Mdk 10.2 is still in *beta*, so you may find it quite buggy. The current Official release is 10.1.

Personally, I would install it on the primary drive, with XP. Just because it is easier for a newbie to set up that way. And you can get by with much less than 20GB, unless/until you decide to go fully Linux.

I would suggest letting the installer automatically set up partitions in "unused space" on the Windows XP drive. It will create 3 partitions for you:
/ - the root directory
swap - for system swap files
/home - for user (your) files.

By default, Mandrake uses Lilo as a bootloader. Some people prefer grub. It is purely a personal preference thing. In either case, write the bootloader to the MBR. It will recognize your Windows setup, and will include it as one of the boot options.

fine answer Padma

Plus my 2 cents worth
if I can interest anyone in grub heres a howto
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=237511

2) A caution is some old bios...motherboards have trouble with the so called cylinder over 1024 issue mentioned in my post.......so consider a partition with /boot on its own hopefully lower than 1024 cylinder.

3) if that scares you sorry. grub can handle LBA and enable that in bios and all should be sweet
(fingers crossed)

BACKUP some important data.. you know...if your box get toasted