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can somebody help me please? I want to have a dual-boot XP/Linux system but have never uninstalled/reinstalled any operating systems. Currently running Win98 SE what do I do first?
A step-by-step guide for installing XP first would be very helpful, I can install Linux after that.
Are you looking to do an upgrade? Is your hard drive already partitioned for the space needed? Do you have more than one hard drive? What version of Linux/UNIX (FreeBSD needs to be on a primary partition)?
More info please.
David
I wanna upgrade to Windows XP and Mandrake 8.2. A single hard drive is present (a measly 20GB) and it is unpartitioned.
nobody has answered this question...& it couldn't be more simple.
http://www.cprogramming.com/cboard/s...threadid=17169
If you do not have any 3rd party partitioning software (i.e. Partion Magic) then the easiest option is to go ahead and do the Mandrake 8.2 install first. Mandrake comes equipped with DiskDrake, a powerful tool for configuring your hard drive.
CAUTION!!!!!
Before starting the Linux installation, you should run scandisk on your Windows partition. For maximum data security, you should also run defrag on your partition. This further reduces the risk of data loss; this is not mandatory, but safer. If these steps are not taken, you may suffer loss of data on your Windows partition when using DiskDrake to resize it. If you do not know the amount of free disk space, you will also most likely suffer a loss of data.
Once you scan and defrag your existing Windows partition, go ahead and start the install process for Mandrake 8.2. It has a fairly user-friendly installation process and it sounds like maybe you may know how to do that without me telling you. Just make certain you leave enough space for both partitions.
When prompted, create a boot disk. You must do this because once Mandrake is installed, if you upgrade from Windows 98 to XP, there is no guarantee that the Bootloader (GRUB/LILO) will recognize the OS. I have never done this myself, so I can not say for sure that there will be any problems but it is always best to play it safe.
Once you are finished, go ahead and try your XP upgrade. Again, as with Mandrake, the install is pretty straight forward, just follow the prompts.
If your Bootloader no longer works with the XP upgrade, you can always try reinstalling Mandrake over the existing Linux partition.
I realize that these instructions are somewhat over-simplified, but there is no way that I could remember every little detail about installing Mandrake or XP. If you are unxertain about the partitioning process at all, come back again and ask a question specific to that.
Hope I helped clear some things up at least. Maybe more people will post some information that may be more helpful.
David