MDK9.0 and WinXPPro - any potential problems with dual boot?

[Guest johnKFT]

I have just bought another secondhand Dell laptop with XP professional installed, and would like to put MDK9.0 on it with dual boot. I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere that XP could be problematic with dual booting. Can anyone advise me please before I shove the DVD (off a magazine) into the slot?

 

I installed 8.2 many months ago with 98Se and have had no problems at all.

[MottS]

It depends if the filesystem on which XP is installed is fat32 or ntfs. If the FS is fat32 then no problem. The MDK installer will be able to resize the win partition no problem. If the FS is ntfs however, you'll not be able to resize it with the MDK installer since M$ hide the source code.. making it problematic for us, Linux users. In that case, I would resize the WinXP partition before to install Linux. Partition Magic is good at this. Just leave the left space unformated and Linux will recognize and format this free space by its own.

 

Hope this help

 

Good luck !

 

MOttS

[mtweidmann]

NTFS partition re-sizing is set to be added to Mandrkae 9.1. So if you feel like waiting a couple of weeks..... :)

 

Other than the partitions you shouldn't have too many problems. Windows shouldn't even realise that Linux is there. But I would suggest backing-up your data just in case.

[Guest johnKFT]

Well, I checked the WinXP filesystyem and it is Fat32, so I dutifully inserted the MDK9.0 dvd and it would not or could not partition the disk. In beginner's mode it simply said 'Partitioning failed' after I asked it to 'Use the free space on the Windows partition'. I tried in expert mode and this time it said there was insufficient free space for reallocation.

 

I checked the disks again and the situation is:

 

Drive C: 3GB Boot partition with 2.9GB free -- FAT32

Drive D: 21GB Windows XP with 18GB free -- FAT32

 

However, and maybe this is the problem, the Boot partition is Primary and then there is another Primary called Extended (which claims to have 0GB free), inside which resides the Drive D: which is Logical.

 

I find all this very confusing and I just have neither the time nor the energy to learn it properly at the moment - just want to get MDK9.0 installed. I have Partition Magic installed and have read the instructions but am still very nervous of screwing it all up. Could anyone be kind enough to tell me what the problem is and how I can simply and reliably deal with it?

[Counterspy]

Using Partition Magic forget about the C boot drive and concentrate on downsizing the other extended logical XP partition leaving a large empty space. Do nothing to this space from PM. Start the reinstall in Expert Mode which will give you control over the partitioning and not leave it to Mandrake. You want a root "/" partition, a /home partition, a /usr partition and a /var partition. Create a swap partition up to twice the size of your memory up to 512 Mb. The /home and /usr partitions will hold most of your user files and /var is to stop log files overwriting root. Your problems are that you are getting partition types confused. An extended partition will always be zero acting as a large partition for the creation of logical partitions. Also be aware that the designation of disks in linux is hdx, hdx1, etc. not C and D etc.

 

Ideally, you could downsize the boot partition and move the extended XP partition after you resize it. If I am understanding you correctly, then you would be ready to install Linux. Look at the partitioning section in the old docs section at the top of the page for more information. FYI, Windows handles up to 4 primary partitions and you will have only two.

 

To answer your second question, there is no problem with dual booting XP and any version of Linux. If you do damage your boot sector, you can use the XP recovery console. See M$ KB article Q307654.

 

If you find anything confusing in this post, wait until tomorrow after 3:00 P.M. EST when I will have had a chance to read it and reply or someone else will sort it out.

 

Counterspy

[Guest johnKFT]

Thanks everyone. I've been too busy till now to get on with this, but have now read everything I can find and had a couple of trial runs with Partition Magic and feel almost ready to go. May I ask one more bit of advice before I press the APPLY button?

 

I have reduced the bootable partition © to about 50MB more than the occupied space (as advised by someone somewhere) and moved the extended partition to take up the space. I then reduced the XP partition to about 1.5 GB more than it takes up currently, to allow for any files I may want to store on there. Should I now let Mandrake install itself in the free space inside the extended partition (unallocated logical) or should I close the extended partition down to the same size as the XP partition and let Mandrake use the free space that is then left outside (unallocated primary)? I think the latter but am nervous of pressing the button without confirmation.

 

Sorry to seem thick but this aspect of it is not clear anywhere I have looked.

[Counterspy]

It would be my advice to follow the outline I gave above which means you do the partitioning (and package selection) in expert mode. This way you have total control over what the partitions will be. The old docs article on Partitioning in the Install section will give you an idea of sizes for each. You can enlarge the /usr and /home partitions given your disk size. These two partitions hold most of your programs with /home being mainly for your personal settings for your window manager (default is KDE). Before you begin, if you have not done so already, download the first three and the fifth Mandrake documentation files if you did not get docs in a boxed set. Find them here: http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/fdoc.php3 .

 

When you get to package selection you can select them by group or individually if you know which programs you want on your computer. If you are not sure, select the groups. The titles of the groups tell what's in them and if you are not going to be developing software or running a network server you can safely leave these out.

 

Once installed, up and running you can get any additional packages you want or remove any that you don't want. Note that many programs have dependencies on other programs that will be installed as well. Make sure you make a boot disk to bail you out if something goes wrong.

 

Come back if you experience any problems.

 

Counterspy

[Guest johnKFT]

Yes, thanks for that. I read the docs and studied your previous post and am now happy about what to do when I shove in the Mandrake DVD. It is the intitial repartitioning by Partition Magic that I am not 100% certain of. Do I install mandrake into the extended partition alongside XP or do I close the extended partition down to include just XP then install mandrake outside it? I did not have all this when I installed my 8.x series as Mandrake just reorganised the existing Win98SE for me.

[Counterspy]

Leave the Mandrake in the extended partition along side XP. PM can do horrendous damage and your disk will be fscked up thoroughly if you put a primary partition after an extended partition.

 

In an ideal world XP would be in a primary partition and Mandrake in an extended partition. That might be a daring move with PM but it might work. That would give you three primary partitions, one short of the maximim. It has the advantage of keeping Mandrake and Windows entirely separate.

 

One question that has dogged me throughout this discussion is that boot partition. What is it doing? Not being an XP owner, I don't know if it is necessary for XP. A radical solution would be to delete it and change XP to a primary partition and move it to the front then creating an empty extended partition for Mandrake. PM "should" stop you from overwriting the first 63 sectors on the disk where the MBR and partition tables reside. Mandrake's boot loaders (I like Grub) would pick up XP and allow you to boot into it. You could lose XP beyond the Recovery console's ability to recover it if anything goes wrong in the install. If it is a bootloader like Boot Manager or System Commander, it would be my choice to get rid of it as an unnecessary complication. It depends on how much data on XP needs preserving and whether backing it up is a reasonable alternative. Before doing anything, use the XP equivalents of Scandisk and defrag or Norton Disk Doctor and Speeddisk to push all the xp data to the front of the partition.

 

Another way would be to use PM after Mandrake is installed which is still a risky move and impossible if you are going to use a journalled file system other than ext3 and you are using PM8 which allegedly supports moving ext3 partitions. Basically, I am not enthralled with using PM on a Linux install of any kind, but there are those here who disagree. I must admit I have done it before deciding on Parted for Linux.

 

One last caution. Do not under any circumstances let PM correct errors it thinks it finds. That will do you in for sure. The Large Disk How-To at http://www.tldp.org points out the reason. If choose Documentation in the Mandrake install you will have it on your system under the Docxumentation icon in the main menu.

 

Counterspy

[Guest johnKFT]

Finally plucked up the courage and did it - no problems thanks to your patient help Counterspy. I made the bootable partition smaller and the XP partition smaller and closed it up to the bootable one to leave a big space inside the extended partition. Fired up Mdk 9.0 and chickened out a bit by letting it set the partitions for me., but all went well until I started using it. But that may be another post shortly, and none of it has anything to do with this subject. Thanks again everyone. Not only have I done the job but I feel I have learned quite a bit in the process, and gained some confidence.

 

John

[Counterspy]

I'm happy ot worked out for you. Enjoy your new Mandrake Installation.

 

Counterspy

[illogic-al]

It depends if the filesystem on which XP is installed is fat32 or ntfs.  If the FS is fat32 then no problem.  The MDK installer will be able to resize the win partition no problem.  If the FS is ntfs however, you'll not be able to resize it with the MDK installer since M$ hide the source code.. making it problematic for us, Linux users.  In that case, I would resize the WinXP partition before to install Linux.  Partition Magic is good at this.  Just leave the left space unformated and Linux will recognize and format this free space by its own.

 

Hope this help

 

Good luck !

 

MOttS

 

Mdk 9.1 now handles ntfs resizing :)