Guest fo0hzy Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 I have been using Windows for going on ten years, and would love to learn linux. I have a Dell Dimension 8300 with no floppy drive installed. I have downloaded & run the Mandrake Move live CD, and everything worked perfectly (the first out of 4 linux live distros to do so... sound was the major issue with the other three), so I am eager to partition my HD and install Mandrake. However, in all my reading online about partitioning, it is highly recommended or required that you create a boot floppy. Is there a way to create a boot CD? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 Don't worry about creating a boot floppy it isnt required Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fo0hzy Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 Don't worry about creating a boot floppy it isnt required <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks for the quick (and surprising) reply - 2nd question - what would be the best (free) partitioning software for a newcomer like me to utilize? I'd rather not shell out the bucks for PM 8.0... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamw Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 The Mandrake installer. It can do all the partitioning you need to do, including resizing NTFS partitions. Just select custom partitioning when you run the Mandrake install. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fo0hzy Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 The Mandrake installer. It can do all the partitioning you need to do, including resizing NTFS partitions. Just select custom partitioning when you run the Mandrake install. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Is this possible without data loss? I will backup my files anyway, just in case, but I know some partitioning tools are capable of simply claiming free space at the end of the primary partition (after defraging)... which would be a big time saver, not having to re-install windows... Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padma Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 Just defrag your WIndows first. Left to itself, Mandrake will simply grab free space at the end of the existing partition. If you select custom partitioning, you will get a bit more control over what partitions you use, and their sizes. I have never had a problem with Mandrake screwing up my Windows partition, but backup never hurts. ;) (Better safe than sorry. :) ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fo0hzy Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 Thanks for the info! I'll be installing tonight... I'll let ya know how it goes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fo0hzy Posted December 15, 2004 Report Share Posted December 15, 2004 Success! I'm amazed... either I was very lucky or I just happened to have the right set-up! Everything works! Well, so far, anyway... I have internet, sound & video, so that's a good start Thanks for your help... now I'm off to learn how to install the programs I want (like Firefox & Skype)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamw Posted December 16, 2004 Report Share Posted December 16, 2004 fo0hzy: firefox should be a simple urpmi mozilla-firefox - if not, go to http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/ and set up a contrib source first. Skype is proprietary so you'll have to download and install their own package. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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