Installing Over a Dual Boot

MalachiConstant · 10-31-2006, 03:18 PM

I bought my computer with Windows XP SP2, then started testing some Linux distros. Several of them didn't work with my hardware out of the box, and I didn't have the time or energy to troubleshoot them if I didn't even know whether it was going to be worth it, so I just moved on. I picked up Xandros somewhere and it worked straightaway, so I stuck with that for a while.

Lately I picked up the live disc of SuSE 10.1. Now I want to install SuSE over Xandros, but keep the dual-boot option at startup. Is this going to be a tricky operation? Any advice or suggestions?

**K-B** · 10-31-2006, 06:24 PM

Should be fairly straight-forward, since you already have a Linux partition, just make sure you know which one is the Linux and which one is for Windows. Suse will probably format the Linux partition for you, although I'm not positive. I usually format the partition to NTFS from Windows control panel and just have the Linux distro re-format it back to it's default filesystem. Also, Suse should detect your Windows installation and (if you specify to do so) automatically set up your dual boot.

10-31-2006, 03:18 PM	#1 (permalink)
MalachiConstant Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 115 OS: Win XP Pro SP2 My System	Installing Over a Dual Boot I bought my computer with Windows XP SP2, then started testing some Linux distros. Several of them didn't work with my hardware out of the box, and I didn't have the time or energy to troubleshoot them if I didn't even know whether it was going to be worth it, so I just moved on. I picked up Xandros somewhere and it worked straightaway, so I stuck with that for a while. Lately I picked up the live disc of SuSE 10.1. Now I want to install SuSE over Xandros, but keep the dual-boot option at startup. Is this going to be a tricky operation? Any advice or suggestions?

10-31-2006, 06:24 PM	#2 (permalink)
K-B Moderator, Linux Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: NY Posts: 2,876 OS: Vista, Ubuntu My System	Should be fairly straight-forward, since you already have a Linux partition, just make sure you know which one is the Linux and which one is for Windows. Suse will probably format the Linux partition for you, although I'm not positive. I usually format the partition to NTFS from Windows control panel and just have the Linux distro re-format it back to it's default filesystem. Also, Suse should detect your Windows installation and (if you specify to do so) automatically set up your dual boot. __________________