dual booting mandrake with winXP

[inari_ 0]

new to linux,..

 

i want to install winXP with mandrake 10,..

i'd appreciate it if someone could give me some advice about how to not lose any OS in the process, i'll be installing both clean and formatting most of the HDs,..

 

basically, whats the best way to set it up, what do i need to do to have both OSs opperable,..

 

PC setup,

P4 1.5 Ghtz

512 Mb DDR

40 Gb HD C:

60 Gb HD D:

 

i might add in a 1 Gb HD for a swap file,..

 

i've tried this befor and lost alot of stuff in the process,.. some people said i needed a fat32 MBR but i don't want to run winXP on fat32,..

 

any help would be greatly appreciated,..

 

-jcm

 

 

[jarves 0]

you should try partitioning your harddisk.

one will will be for windows and the other for the linux, and install windows first and your linux after your windows in that way after installing both, when u restart your computer you get a choice where to boot from; either linux or windows...

[inari_ 0]

so i just need to add in partitions, i was looking at it like this;

disk1

c: ntfs / linux ext3 / s: fat32

disk2

d: ntfs / o: ntfs / linux swap

 

where s: is read/write for both OSs, and o: is for other purposes,.. then install XP to c:, linux to the second partition, do i need lilo or grub or a boot loader?

 

i'm prepared to partition i just don't want to lose anything, PM8 is ready,. i just need to be sure on how i partition it.,

[danleff 0]

You will get a lot of theories about the MBR, but I have my main system with the MBR on a NTFS partition with no problem.

 

Some create a small fat32 filesystem (50 mb or so) as the first partition as the MBR, but this does not seem to be necessary. I have tried it both ways.

 

Two suggestions. Mandrake 10 tends to format partitons in a way that PartitionMagic has difficulty reading the partitions that Mandrake makes during it's install, so I would do all the partitions in PartitionMagic, then point Mandrake to take over the ext3 or whatever Linux partition that you have set up. As Mandrake goes to the format partition phase, just pick "custom partitioning." Don't allow Mandrake to actually format the partition, just set the root partiton flag.

 

Some also feel that having a second ext3 home partition for Mandrake is useful, in case something happens to the boot partition, you can still recover your home partition data.

 

Secondly, I would put the swap partition on the same drive as Mandrake. This way, if you decide to remove or change the second drive later on, you have not lost your swap partition. This will prevent the need to alter the first hard drive to make a swap partiton and tell /etc/fstab about it.

 

In other words, Mandrake will look for the swap partition where you put it. Remove or change this drive's scheme later on, you remove or change the partition designation for swap. Not really a problem if you have 512 mb or ram or more, but a consideration.

 

Also remember that all those NTFS partitions may give you a headache later on if you need to access any data on those partitions later on with Linux.

 

Finally, it is possible to use the Windows XP bootloader (boot.ini) to boot Linux, but this is better off left to one with experience in this area. Lilo or Grub should give you the option to boot Windows XP system, IF you install Windows before any flavor of Linux.

[matrix3000k 0]

hey if you wanna get both os's to work just format your first hard drive as your windows drive and then the second hard drive as your linux drive. you wanna makd a /boot partition of 32MB then a swap partiation the same size as your memory, and then the last partition make that your / partition of the whole drive. so when you partition everything first you wanna install windows on he first drive. then after you are done with installation on of windows, pop in the linux cds and follow the wizards in the instasll. at the end when you are done installing the packages that you wanna install you will come to a configuration part in he installation. there you can configure LILLO and makse sure that there is an opition there for windows. one you configure that then you are good to go....you are now able to duel boot between linux and windows....good luck!!!!!

 

..:Matrix3000k:..

[inari_ 0]

so lilo and grub are built into the linux installer?

 

 

[danleff 0]

In Mandrake, yes, both are given as options during the install. You can also elect to install Grub or Lilo to a floppy to test the system, then within Mandrake, invoke Lilo or Grub to the MBR.

[Dapper Dan 0]

My two cents worth:

 

Everyone has their preferences, but from my experience, GRUB on the first portion of the Linux / partition has given me far less trouble on newer machines from install to install than LILO on the MBR. On the other hand LILO on the MBR seems to give less trouble on older boxes.

 

Whatever you do, STAY AWAY fron Boot Magic, part of Partition Magic. Though Partition Magic is a very useful tool, Boot Magic is absolute rubbish. I believe Mandrake's partitionimg tool can now partition NTFS without too much trouble, but I have always used Partition Magic to resize NTFS, and it has never failed me.

 

Also, it's a good idea to put /home on it's own seperate partition. That way, when you do a new install, you can just leave your /home partition alone, not formatting it, and it will be there for whichever version/distro you may want to upgrade to, though still do backups before new installs.

 

ReiserFS, in my opinion, is the best all around file system for Linux. During the partitioning process, Mandrake will give you the option of using it.

 

Also make SURE, you create a boot floppy when it asks at the end of the install. If something doesn't go right, a boot floppy can be a life saver!

 

Good Luck.

[nebulus 0]

Quote:

Finally, it is possible to use the Windows XP bootloader (boot.ini) to boot Linux, but this is better off left to one with experience in this area. Lilo or Grub should give you the option to boot Windows XP system, IF you install Windows before any flavor of Linux.

First of all.. order of installing opereting systems doesn't really matter at all. But, I have to admit that in most cases it's a lot easier to install Windows first and then go with Linux.

Secondly, setting up NT's bootloader is also not that big problem.
Though, there're a couple of things you have to remember..
1) Install LILO to \boot partition
2) Mandrake tends to overwrite MBR, so you might need to run "fixmbr" from Windows recovery disc
3) When you get into Linux for the first time, mount a blank floppy

Quote:

mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

and then copy first 512 bytes from boot sector

Quote:

dd if=/dev/hdaX bs=512 count=1 of=/mnt/floppy/linux.bin

where hdaX is \boot partition (check out boot line in lilo.conf)

Go to Windows and put "linux.bin" to c:\ and add this line to "boot.ini":

Quote:

C:\linux.bin="Mandrake Linux 10.0"

4) In general, it's a good idea to have something like Knoppix etc. available.. just in case you'll get into trouble booting into Linux for the first time.
5) Later you can modify "lilo.conf" to set (lilo)boot sequence to 0.