Duel booting with win2k and linux mandrake 1

[june1980]

Hello all.

I'm thinking of installing Linux Mandrake 9.1 as a second OS on my Windows 2k computer. Here's the kicker - I have no idea what I'm doing. Could someone explain what I need to do? Mabye point me at a duel boot install guide somewhere?

 

[harly]

hey June, check this out :

http://doc.mandrakelinux.com/MandrakeLinux/91/en/Quick_Startup.pdf

hope it helps, good luck

 

[HondaSir]

1. Install Microsoft OS
2. Install Linux

Don't Delete Windows Partition
Have a free second partition for Linux

 

[wolluf]

Have you got either 2 hard drives or unused (unpartitioned) space on the 2k hard drive? If not, you will either need to use something like Partition magic (to make space for Linux) or start from scratch (as per HondaSir - ie, delete 2k partition and reinstall onto a smaller one - you can do this during 2k install - obviously back up first if taking this option, then install linux).

You will need a boot manager. Linux comes with lilo or grub usually (which should be ok for you).

 

[smah]

Actually, starting with 9.1, Mandrake can resize an NTFS partition as part of the installation. As far as I know, only Mandrake can do this.

Side note here - I haven't actually tried it, but I haven't heard any complaints.

 

[wolluf]

smah - that's interesting, perhaps I'll have to force myself to look at Linux again!

 

[june1980]

With Mandrake 9.1, I was able to resize a single NTFS partition to make 5 gigs of room for a linix install. Also, the Win2k and Mandrake both work on the first try without error. Pretty cool!

Thanks for everyone's help!

 

[smah]

FWIW, I expect that all the other distros will soon have NTFS partition resizing. Considering that almost all pre-built computers will have NTFS partitions, this would be a very good thing.

 

[AP81]

1. Defgragment your Windows system
2. Resize your Windows partition
3. Make another partition in the free space and format as FAT32 (to share files between Linux and Windows)
4. Install Mandrake with Auto-partitioning in the free space left on the drive

I'd leave around 4 - 10 Gb for Linux.