James Argo

Hi everyone... Linux wannabe here. Please don't be hasistate to reply my questions, despite the nature of these questions has been asked many time here. I have an old PC on my possesion. Pentium 200MMX, Intel mobo (?) 32MB EDO ram, 4GB HD only 1 partition, Cirrus PCI VGA card + 6 years 14" monitor, Realtek PCI LAN card, old CDRW (4x4x24), Old Creative SB16 ISA soundcard, No floppy Currently, it has Win98SE. Though it considered "old", it realy powerfull for it's class! I mean, fast Win98SE starting, run multitasking without problem (Winamp 2.7, 4~6 window IE browser, Word97, realtime antivirus monitoring, etc simultaneous). I got 3 CDs Mandrake 9 installation, and about to install it beside Win98SE. I knew I must devide current partition, and install Mandrake on second partition (drive D). My questions are: 1. What's the best way to devide partition? (Do I need to use Partition Magic in Win98se first, or will Linux allow me to do it better durring installation)? 2. Can I have access to my Windows' shared files (mp3, jpeg, etc) once Mandrake installed? Since it's also connected to my home network, can I share directories, files and printer with other PCs (running Win98SE and WinXP w/ FAT 32)? 3. Is there anything I must be aware due to my PC spec? That's all for now, I'm sure I'll have so much more Qs in near future. Thanks! Jaymz

...Aaah, Thank you, danleff! I finaly found the answer after days of strugling! It turned out that the CD has been burnt with incorect boot image file (.ima) Instead of CDROM.IMA, he (my friend who copied the CD for me) had choosen FLOPPY.IMA. So whenever I boot from the CD, it brought me to Dr.DOS prompt. It's realy like regular Ms-DOS with command prompt A:> or C:>. Anyway, then I re-burn the CD #1 with corect IMA, and now it boots to MandrakeLinux 9.0 installation the way it should. When it comes to make partition, I choose make partition on unused space, and custom partition, but hey... It doesn't allow me to resize the partition... it says "The partition is not re-sizeable". :x What should I do to devide/resize the partition? Do I need to boot to Win98 and re-partition from there? I don't have PQ Partition Magic. Any suggestion on free partition/disk utility works the best for this matter? Thanks in advance! Jaymz

Ok... I've defraged my HD. Then it's about installation process. I had some problem: 1. Set BIOS to boot from CD. I boot from MandrakeLinux CD1, but end up in DR-Dos prompt without knowing where to go. No promised "Mandrake Installation Windows" appeared. F1 took me nowhere... 2. Try to install within Win98SE. Run Autorun.exe from folder dosutils in Mandrakelinux inst CD1, then graphical menu appears with options to choose (Install Mandrake Linux, Install using floppy, Read documentation, etc...). I clicked on Install Mandrake Linux! Then it gave me some kind of warning window: Reboot. It says "Your machine will be rebooted now, and Mandrake Linux will be installed... etc etc..." But if I click Ok button, nothing happens... It supposed to reboot my PC and install, right? But it doesn't. I can only click Cancel to quit installation. I've readed all installation documents, but it doesn't match my situation... Can somebody please help me what to do (instead of telling me to stick with 98! ) ? Thanks! Jaymz

It's a quick reply. Thanks for enlighting me, danleff Yes, I'm aware of newer version of Mandrake. I think I have ~2GB left on the HD, and I don't think I'm gonna add much Windows files. I'll do defrag the disk back home tonight, and we'll see further questions from me. Thanks again for your info, danleff... Jaymz