steve_c Posted October 19, 2004 Report Share Posted October 19, 2004 (edited) Hi all - complete newbie here so bear with me - I've read the tutorial on installing mandrake and seem quite comfortable with what is outlined but let me explain the stage I'm at... I have got a 160GB Raid0 array running with 5 partitions: Windows: 10gb (3gb free) Files: 40gb Work: 40gb Games: 40gb Photos: 30gb Am I right in understanding that XP and Mandrake need to be on the same partition to dual boot? If so - would it be possible for me to use Partition magic to expand the windows partition? And if I can will there be any performance impact? I have formatted using FAT32 btw. Also I have a Asus P4B533 Motherboard with a Promise RAID controller on board - will I have problems with the install? I cannot see any Linux drivers on the Asus website. I'm very keen to get into this so any help would be appreciated. PS I have downloaded Mandrake 10 official. I connect to the internet using a Alcatel Speedtouch USB modem. Thanks in advance, Steve. *Edit* Oh and will I need a floppy drive? I do have one somewhere but only use it for the RAID drivers for Windows XP install. Edited October 19, 2004 by steve_c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpikeyKlitske Posted October 19, 2004 Report Share Posted October 19, 2004 Am I right in understanding that XP and Mandrake need to be on the same partition to dual boot? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> you do not need them to be on the same partition, in fact they need to be on a different partition. You need to have a partition for the swap file as well. Perhaps you mean them to be on the same physical drive? For that i assume it not to be, but i am sure the experts on this forum can tell you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjtickner Posted October 19, 2004 Report Share Posted October 19, 2004 Hi, I know of a few people who have had problems with RAID and Mandrake. It might be worth your while getting hold of MandrakeMove and checking to see if it can see your raid array if you haven't already done so. It is possible to install Mandrake either on the same physical disk as Windows (on a seperate partition) or on a totally seperate physical disk. I prefer the latter - but then I don't use RAID. No you don't generally need a floppy drive. My system does not have one and it is happily sitting here running Win XP + Mandrake 10.1CE. However, I'm not running RAID and this may mean that you have to use the floppy to introduce some kernal mods during the install. You may have a few problems with the Alcatel. There is another very good thread on here (which was the one that brought me here in the first place). Search for it and it should solve any problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustpuppy Posted October 20, 2004 Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 Mandrake sets up another partition for itself during installation - what you do is tell it to take unused space on another partition and make it into the Mandrake partition. Any of yours would do, not just the one marked "windows". You might want to amalgamate a couple of your current partitions into one, then install Mandrake on the spare space and then carve up what's left into two again. Don't forget to turn off the windows swap space (it's all in the Mandy manual). Re: Alcatel. Just read Let's-Eat-Gary's thread and follow it to the letter. Don't set up anything internet-y during setup, follow the instructions afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_c Posted October 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 Hi All thanks for your swift replys - I'll give it a try tomorrow night and will probably be back here to seek a bit of help! Thanks again! Steve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted October 20, 2004 Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 Since you seem very partition savvy, I would recommend that when you do the install, you use the custom partitioning feature and insure that you know exactly what is going on. Otherwise, mandrake may make some decisions that do not suite you... some other cavaets.. 1. Backup backup backup first. Especially if this is for a business. If you need image your paritition, you can check out partimage. 2. After you install linux, DO NOT use Windows Disk Manager on the hard drive that shares both windows and linux. You stand a good chance of destroying your partition table. Use Mandrake's Disk Manager instead. The issue is different definitions for extended partitions. 3. If you can swing it, buy a second drive for Mandrake. I'm not really RAID savvy so this may not be a good suggestion. But you can install Mandrake on the second drive and prevent issues with RAID or with Disk Manager or even possibly messing up your windows installation. This mess up usually occurs because you don't know something not because there is a software issue. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_c Posted October 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 I'll head that advice well. One more question - just using Partition magic - all my drives are NTFS - I understand Mandrake cannot use this - is that correct? I assume so. What about if I convert to FAT32 using PM - will I lose any performance at all or run into any problems that yoyu know of? I'm pretty much ready to go. Thanks, Steve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustpuppy Posted October 20, 2004 Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 steve - Mandrake will take the spare space on the NTFS partition and partition it off and format it to its own requirements. Just make sure you have a large enough partition (NTFS, FAT or whatever) and then let Mandrake loose on it. Just don't forget: turn off swap and defrag the partition first or else... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_c Posted October 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 steve - Mandrake will take the spare space on the NTFS partition and partition it off and format it to its own requirements. Just make sure you have a large enough partition (NTFS, FAT or whatever) and then let Mandrake loose on it. Just don't forget: turn off swap and defrag the partition first or else... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Right got you - only thing is - will Mandrake be able to read my mp3s and other data I have stored? TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustpuppy Posted October 20, 2004 Report Share Posted October 20, 2004 Right got you - only thing is - will Mandrake be able to read my mp3s and other data I have stored? Yes, but you won't be able to write to the NTFS partitions, only read. You can set up write access on FAT, though. I haven't found I really need write-access to my XP partition: I use it for storing things (papers, mp3s), and if I really need to change a file rather than just read it, I copy it to my Mandrake partition. If I want to eg. listen to an mp3 that's stored on the XP partition I can, just by pointing xmms to the relevant folder in Mandrake, just as I would if it were stored on the Mandrake partition. None of this requires booting into XP: Mandrake can mount the NTFS/FAT partitions in the same way as external drives (so they'll show up in /mnt along with /mnt/floppy etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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