tranceybowler Posted July 17, 2005 Report Share Posted July 17, 2005 I'm looking for some help, I have Mandrake Community 10.1 but now I'm looking to install Windows XP aswell for a dual boot system. I only have one hard disk, and the partition arrangement is as follows: Mount point: / Type: ext3 Size: 44GB Mount point: swap Size: 1004GB Mount point: /matt Type: FAT32 Size: 73 GB The remaining 67GB part of the hard disk is empty and unformatted. The /matt partition was intended for documents to be shared between linux and windows but is pretty much empty. I'm just wondering what the best way to go about installing XP is. Ideally I'd like to not have to re-install linux. Can I just install XP in the empty partition? How do I go about configuring the boot loader after installation? Any help very much appreciated, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted July 17, 2005 Report Share Posted July 17, 2005 oh... this is a bit problematic, i guess. afaik, windows xp must be installed at the first partition of your harddisk (if not, someone correct me please). so what you should do first is to backup all your personal data (burn some cd's). then you should insert the mandrake cd. now install mandrake on your spare fat32 partition and reformat your old linux partition (e.g. to vfat32). leave the swap where it is. once you have done that, enter the mandrake-cd again, hit f1 and go to advanced mode. now choose "restore windows bootloader". after that, install win-xp (you might need to format the free partition again). after that, start the mandrake cd again and hit f1 once more. now reinstall the linux bootloader. finally, add your saved data to your linux /home folder again. your win-xp should be added to lilo automatically. in case it doesn't do it, the howto section has a detailed topic on lilo-dualbooting. just a hint: it is always a good idea to have /home on a separate partition. thus your data will be safe when you change/upgrade your system. good luck. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted July 17, 2005 Report Share Posted July 17, 2005 Winxp must be installed in the first partition. You will have to create some partitions on the drive and move your linux installation. Also, you must use a fat partition to share data between the two. So /Matt must not be a linux file system. L would create an unpartitoined space at he beginning of the drive, perhaps 15-20G, and then remove lilo/grub. Then install xp, nly allowing to use the first partition. Then using the resue mode on cd1, reinstall lilo/grub. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted July 17, 2005 Report Share Posted July 17, 2005 (edited) It can be done, but it needs a lot of work plus a commercial partition manager... if interested, then reply back. My main concern is the 73G FAT32 partition- everything over 32GB is an overkill, which amounts to loads of slack HD space and great chances to lose data. Either cut it down to 32G at most, or split it to several partitions not larger than 32G. For sharing data you can also use NTFS. But for NTFS write under Linux you will need either captive, which is reliable only for XP (not 2000) and for partitions not larger than 128G, but damn SLOW, or the commercial Paragon NTFS driver for Linux, which plays good ball, but it's not terribly fast either, and also it's not cheap. Edited July 17, 2005 by scarecrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted July 17, 2005 Report Share Posted July 17, 2005 I've worked a lot with windows and linux on the same drive. While you can get some commercial stuff, it really is not necessary. Using ntfs on a storage partition is really unwarrented as far as it goes. Using ntfs for windows system files, yes absolutely. I have used Mandriva (Mandrake back then) to do as I have described in my post. The greatest cautio for anyone dual booting with windows is to not allow windows to see a boot loader other than its own. It will tell you that the drive is corrupt and it will "fix" it, which is windowese for "get rid of anything but windows." If thewindows installer is unaware of the other os, it will behave. So, give it a target, even a blank target, to control the installer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kenshinsama Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 ok I know this isnt pertaining to me but Ive been reading this forum for a while(Im gonna be trying a live CD to start branching out) because I want to start using mandrake and XP. from what Im reading Im gonna want them on seperate drives. Im understanding that. I dont wanna derail this thread but I will ask this question. I wanna know if there is a possible way to have Xp and Mandrake on one drive. if not whats the easiest setip to use for that kind of configuration? I do want to start my way with Mandrake but I also wanna keep XP for games. Any advice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 At one time I had four OS'es on one drive (XP, MDV 2005LE, Arch Linux 0.7 and Kanotix 2005.3). All linux loaders installed at the corresponding / partition, and Gag (gag.sourceforge.net) used as primary loader. Now they are trimmed to just two- XP was kept to run games for the kids, and the two inferior Linuxes (Mandy and Kanotix) took the booty, as they simply could not compete with Arch... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted July 31, 2005 Report Share Posted July 31, 2005 Another way to do this is to have lilo or grub installed to the MBR, with one of the linux os's as the primary control for the boot loader. I have always used Mandriva for this. Simply skip the boot loader installation for the other distros. But, prepare the drive with the appropriate seperate partitions ahead of time. 2 os's, at least 2 partitions. 4 os's, at least 4 partitions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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