order for reinstalling

N

ngk

Gawd
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Dec 18, 2002
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i've been looking around a lot and this is what i want to do....i currently have xp pro on here and the whole 80gb wd on one partition...i want to reformat the hd, reinstall xp pro and i want to install mandrake linux....what order should i do these things in ?
 
install windows first, otherwise it will take over as your boot partition and rewrite the mbr.
 
so should i just partition off like 40gb for windows when i'm installing it? then that would leave the rest, like 35gb, for the linux partition....also what file system should i use with mandrake, ntfs or fat32 ?
 
linux does not use either of those, they are m$ fs's ;)
i dont think you can choose the fs type on the mandrake installation, but the main linux fs's are ext3, reiserfs, an xfs.
first of all, install winxp with fat32, so you can read/write to it from linux, but before the installation, find a prog to partition your hdd. fdisk and parition magic come to mind.
 
Mandrake does give you the option to partition out your drive with many many different FS's. Just use ext3 or reiserfs and you're good to go for linux.

I recommend you partition the drive how you want, install winXP then install linux.
 
thanks for the help guys, i got the mandrake isos downloaded so i'm going to do it this weekend....the order of things just to check will be this

1. wipe windows off by formatting the hd
2. create partitions about half-half on my 80gb wd hd
3. install windows and getting it running how i want it
4. install mandrake and bootloader

that sound good ?
 
you don't even really need to pre-partition.

just install windows like you normally would. then install mandrake.

it'll say "i see windows. do you want me to wipe it off there or just use some free space for linux?"

choose "use free space" and it will let you carve chunks out of the existing partitions to make room for linux.

then just install either LiLo or GRUB at the last step of the install of mandrake (it will ask), and let either of those (lilo or grub) handle your MBR (master boot record).

next time you boot, it'll ask

"i see linux and windows... which should i boot?"
 
well i tried just installing mandrake instead of reinstalling everything and after i went to partition the linux it went to where i choose which packages i want and it said i only had 480mb to install packages on...i then rebooted to try it again and it freezes when i get to the partitioning part....so now i'm going to reinstall windows and start from scratch, should i use fat or ntfs ?
 
use FAT if you want linux to have access to your windows partition. Otherwise use the superior NTFS if you dont care that linux cant read it..
 
ok the installation keeps freezing....i have one big partition that's 73.3gb ntfs with xp pro on it, and one partition where linux started to install on, so i made it fat32 to use for swap between the two, it's only 1.16gb. even now if i boot into the mandrake cd it freezes when i get to the part where i'm supposed to test the mouse, it didn't do it the first time but it's done it every time after that....ideas?
 
you don't need to make a fat32 partition to share between the two of them. let windows use its own swap file on its ntfs partition. then when you get to the disk partitioning seciton of the mandrake install, create a swap partition for it. if you let the wizard automatically create the partitions i don't think you even have to worry about it. as for the freezing with the mouse testing, i have no idea. unless maybe you are telling the installer to setup a different mouse than the one you are actually using.
 
the first time i got all the way to partitioning and the packages thing after selecting usb>microsoft explorer because i'm using the intellimouse explorer v3.0 on usb....i still dont know why it's freezing though....i might wipe the whole drive and start over....
 
when you install xp (assuming you're starting over), don't let the partition take up the whole drive. set it to whatever, half the drive, and leave the rest unpartitioned. this will make it so you don't have to wait to format the whole drive just to reformat parts of it later. then let mandrake use the unpartitioned space to auto partition. as i read it, a previous suggestion was to partition the whole drive for xp, then let mandrake repartition. correct me if i'm wrong.

xp has it's own pagefile (swap) on it's partition
linux will make it's own out of the free space
like it keeps being said, use fat32 on xp if you want linux to be able to read/write it.

have you md5 checksum'ed your iso's?
 
I dunno if you should give 40 gigs to linux, since you're still learning it, it probably won't be your main OS so you won't be doing that much stuff that requires all the space in there.
 
i got the install working last night, but it only created three very small partitions, like one 577mb, one 117mb and one 478mb, so it said i only had so much room for packages so i just installed kde, what can i do to get more room for the mandrake?
 
why did you have it only make partitions this big?
when you install winxp have it go to a partition maybe 30 gigs. Then when you are installing mandrake, slelect the free space to install it too.
 
well i left my orig xp on there and got mandrake installed, but it will only take that much, how can i steal space from the windows partition either in windows or in linux ?
 
You need to LISTEN to the suggestions people have told you.

IN WINDOWS SETUP.
Delete all partitions. Create a 40 Gb partition. Use Fat if you want Linux to see the windows partition, NTFS otherwise.

IN LINUX SETUP.
Let it auto partition. It'll see the 40 gbs free, and do as it pleases with it.
 
i did listen to everyone...but i ended up NOT reinstalling windows....so now i need to steal more space from the ntfs for the linux...
 
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