Dual Booting question

AidanRyuko · 01-18-2008, 01:07 PM

Hello,

I'm a Windows XP user, and I am hoping to gain some experience using Linux. However, I wish to keep both OS's in order to play some of my games on XP that won't offer linux versions, and then Linux for educational purposes.

I have formatted my HD recently into three partitions:
C: - 20 GB - XP only
D: - 10 GB - Future Linux?
E: - 45 GB - Programs, documents, etc etc

I hope to be able to get a Fedora Core 8, since that is also what my Linux class is using. Where can I go to get it? I cannot burn DVDs, only CDs or use a USB drive (2 GB). I need one that supports AMD64 platforms too.

On a side note, will I be able to just use the 10 GB partition I reserved? I have not formatted it, it's just a raw partition. Or will I have to reformat everything?

sbobillierc · 01-21-2008, 12:08 PM

Ok, I will asume that the three partitions are in the same Drive which in Linux terms will be

sda1 20 GB Winodws XP Setup
sda3 10 GB (Future Linux?)
sda4 45 GB Programs / Documents, etc

Where is sda2? Ok sda2 is the extended partition which means sda3 and sda4 are in fact logical partitions and you can not use them to install Linux since you need the system to be in a Primary partition. I guess that you partitioned your disk with the Windows XP Setup disk which has this bad habbit of creating extended partitions starting with the second one.

Check this with the Disk Manager in the MMC (Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools) if this is the case you have no other choice but to remove the extended partition (with the logical drives that are in it) and then install linux. This is because once you create an extended parition you can not create any more primary partitions. (As far as I have seen with the QParted utility---- maybe I'm wrong).

What I recomend is:

Back-up the files in the DATA / Programas partition.
Remove the extended partition using the Disk Manager on the MMC
Install Linux (you really want to let Linux create the partitions it will be needing (trust me, you really do!) (boot, home, /, etc).
WITH LINUX add the Data / Programs partition (you can then format it with Windows but never try to modify the Partition table with Windows once linux is installed because it will destroy the MBR and the grub installation).
Mount the new data / programs partition in Linux and that's all.

PD: You may download fedora from here: http://fedoraproject.org/

tomiro · 01-27-2008, 10:03 AM

Obtaining Fedora 8:
You have a couple of choices.
1. Download the entire CD set and burn all the CDs (after verifying the checksums).
2. Download either the KDE or Gnome Live CD and burn the CDs (after verifying the checksum). The 32 bit (x86) versions do fit on a CD. If you need the 64 bit (x86_64, AMD64) they are too small to fit on a CD and would need to be burned to a DVD.
3. Get an official Fedora installation DVD. I forget where their vendors page is, but all the Fedora products can be obtained here:
http://on-disk.com/index.php/cPath/28_145
4. Adding a cheap DVDRW burner if your thinking about future DVD burning.

01-18-2008, 01:07 PM	#1 (permalink)
AidanRyuko Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 8 OS: XP SP 2	Dual Booting question Hello, I'm a Windows XP user, and I am hoping to gain some experience using Linux. However, I wish to keep both OS's in order to play some of my games on XP that won't offer linux versions, and then Linux for educational purposes. I have formatted my HD recently into three partitions: C: - 20 GB - XP only D: - 10 GB - Future Linux? E: - 45 GB - Programs, documents, etc etc I hope to be able to get a Fedora Core 8, since that is also what my Linux class is using. Where can I go to get it? I cannot burn DVDs, only CDs or use a USB drive (2 GB). I need one that supports AMD64 platforms too. On a side note, will I be able to just use the 10 GB partition I reserved? I have not formatted it, it's just a raw partition. Or will I have to reformat everything?

01-21-2008, 12:08 PM	#2 (permalink)
sbobillierc Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Colombia Posts: 9 OS: Windows XP SP 2 / Kubuntu 7.10 Gusty	Re: Dual Booting question Ok, I will asume that the three partitions are in the same Drive which in Linux terms will be sda1 20 GB Winodws XP Setup sda3 10 GB (Future Linux?) sda4 45 GB Programs / Documents, etc Where is sda2? Ok sda2 is the extended partition which means sda3 and sda4 are in fact logical partitions and you can not use them to install Linux since you need the system to be in a Primary partition. I guess that you partitioned your disk with the Windows XP Setup disk which has this bad habbit of creating extended partitions starting with the second one. Check this with the Disk Manager in the MMC (Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools) if this is the case you have no other choice but to remove the extended partition (with the logical drives that are in it) and then install linux. This is because once you create an extended parition you can not create any more primary partitions. (As far as I have seen with the QParted utility---- maybe I'm wrong). What I recomend is: Back-up the files in the DATA / Programas partition. Remove the extended partition using the Disk Manager on the MMC Install Linux (you really want to let Linux create the partitions it will be needing (trust me, you really do!) (boot, home, /, etc). WITH LINUX add the Data / Programs partition (you can then format it with Windows but never try to modify the Partition table with Windows once linux is installed because it will destroy the MBR and the grub installation). Mount the new data / programs partition in Linux and that's all. PD: You may download fedora from here: http://fedoraproject.org/ Last edited by sbobillierc; 01-21-2008 at 12:11 PM.

01-27-2008, 10:03 AM	#3 (permalink)
tomiro Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Rochester NY Posts: 5 OS: Zenwalk Gnu/Linux 5.0	Re: Dual Booting question Obtaining Fedora 8: You have a couple of choices. 1. Download the entire CD set and burn all the CDs (after verifying the checksums). 2. Download either the KDE or Gnome Live CD and burn the CDs (after verifying the checksum). The 32 bit (x86) versions do fit on a CD. If you need the 64 bit (x86_64, AMD64) they are too small to fit on a CD and would need to be burned to a DVD. 3. Get an official Fedora installation DVD. I forget where their vendors page is, but all the Fedora products can be obtained here: http://on-disk.com/index.php/cPath/28_145 4. Adding a cheap DVDRW burner if your thinking about future DVD burning. __________________ Thank you, tomiro