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I tried setting up my Dell (specs in sig) to dual boot Windows XP Pro SP2 and Red Hat Linux 7. I tried partitioning the hard drive (that seemed to work) and installing Red Hat on a seperate partition on the same Maxor 40 GB hard drive. Next thing I know my NTFS file system has become corrupt and the Linux kernel seemed to have vanished. With a bit of trying I got XP Pro SP2 reinstalled but now I am terrified of installing Linux again.
My question is should I get a completely seperate hard drive and install Linux on that, or is there a way to partition my hard drive and dual boot off the one drive? Or should I use two seperate drives? Help!
Nope Windows and Linux will work on one HD as long as the HD is partitioned.
XP partition should be formatted using NTFS
Linux partition needs to be formatted using FAT32
Linux can read NTFS and access it but not write, while XP can't read the Linux partition after Linux is installed...
So my suggestion is to have 3 partitions on your HD.
C: NFTS - XP
D: FAT32 - Linux
E: FAT32 - for storage between the two OS's.
I believe for Linux you'll need to further partition the D drive (never installed Red Hat, I'm guessing Mandrake is the same installation process). For Mandrake you can partition the HD while installing....you'll need to create a ram drive (~16MB) and leave the rest for the OS.
Ah, I think that might have been my problem. I used a partitioning program that tried putting a "linux" partition on my hard drive. Stupid me trusted it. Anyone know if there is a *working* free partitioning program out there?
40 GB Maxtor?
This is how I would do it:
1. 10 GB partition for XPPro & 3rd party windows programs. NTFS
2. 5 GB Linux partition for linux & linux apps. EXT 2.
3. 3rd partition 3 times the amount of system RAM for a linux swap partition.
3. Remainder of drive FAT 32 logicakl drive.
Partitioning MUST(should) be done before any operating systems get installed. This can all be done by first installing Linux and running cfdisk to create the partitions. Once Linux is up & running I would install XPPro, then boot to linux & install GRUB (grand unified boot loader) which once configured will give a nice boot menu when computer is turned on.
No one has any right to force data on you
and command you to believe it or else.
If it is not true for you, it isn't true. LRH
TonyT wrote:40 GB Maxtor?
This is how I would do it:
1. 10 GB partition for XPPro & 3rd party windows programs. NTFS
2. 5 GB Linux partition for linux & linux apps. EXT 2.
3. 3rd partition 3 times the amount of system RAM for a linux swap partition.
3. Remainder of drive FAT 32 logicakl drive.
Partitioning MUST(should) be done before any operating systems get installed. This can all be done by first installing Linux and running cfdisk to create the partitions. Once Linux is up & running I would install XPPro, then boot to linux & install GRUB (grand unified boot loader) which once configured will give a nice boot menu when computer is turned on.
Great post! Using Linux to partition is actually a really good idea. It's much easier than XP IMO.
As long as you have XP installed and the Linux partition is set up correctly you're good to go. The first time I installed Mandrake I had to install like 3 or 4 times (kept screwing up). Thank god each installation only took like 10-15 mins.
TonyT wrote: This can all be done by first installing Linux and running cfdisk to create the partitions.
Is there a thread anywhere on using cfdisk?
Basically I have been working with computers for many years, but working with Linux is still fairly new to me. I've used it basically, but not extensivly.
Sid wrote:May I suggest Fedora Core 3. It's redhat, and will partition your drive during installation and set up GRUB for you.
Really! It ships w/ GRUB? Sweet. Does it partition using cfdisk? I learned cfdisk (20 or so Deb installs) & it's real easy to quickly set up a drive using it.
No one has any right to force data on you
and command you to believe it or else.
If it is not true for you, it isn't true. LRH
TonyT wrote:Really! It ships w/ GRUB? Sweet. Does it partition using cfdisk? I learned cfdisk (20 or so Deb installs) & it's real easy to quickly set up a drive using it.
Yeah, Redhat has had Grub as a choice for some time. Not sure what it uses to partition but its graphical(yup I'm a noob) and give you a choice of auto partition, use free space or remove and use old nix partitions. Very nice install. I wish Debian would finally release there new installer, I know they have been working on it for some time now.
You'll need to do a few things in order to get a dual system working properly.
The most important thing is to install you boot loader into the master boot record or else you'll never be able to boot the second OS.
Always install any Microsost OS first, Windows always formats the master boot record after the OS installation.
During the installation remember to use only one primary partition for windows. The second Primary partion is for Linux, remember your only allowed to use 4 primary partitions on a hard drive.
There is also a problem accessing OS'es past the 1024th cylinder (past 512mb) of your harddrive if your BIOS is not set to LBA disk access.
I have yet to see a Linux distro that does not autodetect OS'es during boot loader configuration. Debian/RedHat has being doing this for some time.
BTW, Linux uses the ext2 filesystem by default, not FAT32. Also, unless you are using your Linux box for software development, database applications, heavy graphics or video editing their is no reason for using more then 128MB for a swap partition in Linux. Personnaly I use a 512MB swap partition, but I have a 120gig SATA hard drive and can't fill it up.
Again, thanks for all the help. What I ended up doing was taking a Compac Presario Laptop with a bad (read: someone manager to actually crack it) hard drive and putting an ancient, 1 GB Hitachi laptop drive in it and installing straight Red Hat 7.x on it. Now I just need to find an ethernet card for the Presario
