mohit_puris

Hi, There are two things to check here! 1) check your installation disk. Ie may be there is a problem in the cd/dvd. 2) what is the partition scheme that you are allocating. I can give you a Layman's tip that i use. (I know some ppl will not agree to this, so think before u do it.)This is to be used after it is sure that the installation material is fine. Delete all the partitions on the hard drive. Also delete the partition tables. delete everything. See if u can use the DEBUG script. It really helps. Once done, Put the windows xp cd. Creat the number of partitions u want for windows. Make it NTFS?FAT32 as per your liking. DO NOT CREATE A PARTITION FOR LINUX. Just let that 56 MB be BLANK scpace (unpartitioned space) After this install ur windows xp (No perepherals connected like printers and cameras) Once u are done with windows, Put in the fedora cd. Move on with the options. Select MANUAL partitioning. Here give the windows drive a mount point (anything u like). I use /win_c, /win_d Now add new partition. Make /,/home,/boot and <swap> Partitions. (i recomment) ?boot will require a 120 mb space. Partition type should be ext3., <swap> will need GENERALLy twice the space as ur RAM. Now devide the remaining space between / and /home (all s/w will be installed in /, and all ur files and users will be in /home) I would say give 50% of remaining space to each. Now carry on with the installation. ADVICE : Install all the packages that u think u will be using in first attempt only. Reason, When u want to reinstall some packaes from cd or dvd, you will face some problems. We will discuss that later. I am sure You will be successful in installing FC5. Note that FC4 had some issues with SATA drives, but FC5 is just fine. Now A problem that you will face and i am facing now: Once u have installed both the os, U will not be able to reinstall windows XP by booting from the cd untill u delete alll ur partition and partition tables. Well, i am sure once u find fedora comfortable, u will not be using windows , so it ok Let Me know if it Helps! Regards Mohit

Leaving the forum isnt what is in my mind. I am leaving this discussion. I need to spend some time to find a solution. I appreciate your quick responses. Regards

Danleff, I thank you for your help. At the same time, i must leave this discussion i think. It is becoming more and more about proving certain point/points. That is not what i require. The problem that i have here is something that many are facing, I would have appreciated someone respecting my observations and then helping in the solution finding process by giving his/her inputs. However .... I once again thank for your help. And best of luck to this forum Utmost Regards Mohit Puri

Looserboy02 your system is a very good one. There shouldnt be any major problem about compatibility. generally speaking ASUS and NVIDIA have Linux drivers available, that means hardly any problem. About selecting distros, here is my take 1) fedora I use FC5 X86_64. Not any major issues with it. I have been using Linux from red hat 6. So i like red hat and derivatives. Basically Fedora will install most of the packages u need. That means you will have to install lesser packages if atall in future. Any Third party s/w if is awailable for Linux, you will get its precompiled installer (rpm) configured for Fedora. For technical use, best! MANDRIVA I have used Mandriva Limited edition 2006, Wonderful userfriendliness. I liked the Graphics. It has support for Playing Videos and Playing Mp3 out of box. (you will need to do that manually on other Linux disributions. Reason is Out of scope at this moment UBUNTU It is a Single cd install. What all you need you can install from internet using the syneptic/ apt get (it is easy, dont worry) Lesser packages mean more speed. + they promise updates for atleast 18 months. Also you can obtain free cds. you dont also need to pay any postage. Check their website. SUSE i have very less experience with it. I liked it but I prefer Fedora and Mandriva more. Just personal preference. All are RPM based Distributions But UBUNTU which is debian based. I Like Fedora the most, but if u need SPEED go for Ubuntu

Danleff, I am inpreseed by your approach. before i read this, i wondered if some one has the same feelings as i do. I too have never felt need of using any MS compatible software for doing a task. I always get an open source s/w. Leav alone my all in one printer scanner, which i purchased in hurry!

Dear Danleff I appreciate your helping jesture. And i am also not perplexed at what you say. Now let me take my turn in explaining the scenario step by stem 1) My computer has two operating systems. Windows xp professional and FC5 X86_64.My had disk is IDE 2) Windows is installed on the first drive and the second drive. Then Is all Linux after that. 3) I am pretty sure that my windows partitions are FAT 32 for windows xp and Ext3 for FC5 4) Now, Due to some reason (virus or whatever), I windows starts mis behaving. I then decide that it is time to FORMAT and install the windows. 5) Doing 4 would ideally delete GRUB from my mbr, which means that i will have to use Linux rescue disk and reinstall the grub on mbr in rescue mode. Am i right so far? 6) In MY case, what happens ideally is not happening. 7) When i boot windows xp cd, it says Setup is inspecting your hardware, and then it goes blank. (PLease note that at this moment, there is a windows xp installed on a fat 32 partition (and with an extended dos partition to go with it to hold data) and this win xp BOOTS normally, but is just misbehaving. 8) Windows 98 can be installed. Agreed its a FAt 32 partition that win 98 can see, and even xp does. i can tell from past experience. 9) The same setup of partitions has no problem in letting the windows cd boot, if a fedora version lesser than core 4 is installed. Try to understand the irony now. Hope this explains the problem better. On a side note, i too have done some extensive research in such problems and i tend to disagree with you on a few things, all in good and +ve spirit Quote: If you must recover the windows MBR on an XP system, it is best to do this from the Windows XP installation disk, in recovery mode. In the present case, one cannot boot to recovery console. The screen goes blank before that. fdisk /mbr is NOT to RECOVER windows MBR but to delete WHATEVER is written on MBR. This is done just for hit and triak. Secondly, no alteration of partitions is required in the presented case Quote: The windows installation disk can't read linux partitions, or blank space on a drive. The drive must have a fat32 or NTFS filesystem, ideally, on the first primary partition on the system. This ia ABSOLUTELY INCORRECT A windows XP installation disk can see Linux partitions and lists them as Unknown partition types. It can even delete them if u want. Windows can also see a Blank disk. Try putting in a new blank had disk. boot from xp cd, it will detect the empty space . Lastly using the win 98 disk is just to debug or do a manual fdisk only. hope you do not mind my straight reply Regards

Hi Friends I have a Similar Problem. I have windows xp an fc5 installed on the computer. Now as some of my hardware will work only in Windows, I often need to reinstall that. My problem started from FC4 onwards. I have an ide hard drive, and two fat partitions and a few ext3 partitions. When i want to reinstall windows, My computer boots and what R.O.e said happens. I then used fdisk /mbr from command prompt, and got rid of Grub from MBR. Still the same problem Then i used fdisk and removed the fat partitions, Still No go Then i removed all the partitions---STILl no go Actually windows xp cd would actually boot only once i have DEBUGGED my hard drive or i have used segate's partition manager to delete the entire disk. This Means Loss of complete data. IRONICALLY, WINDOWS 98 would boot and install without any issues. Please throw some light. P. S I already have fat partitions, when i attempt to boot from windows xp cd