Louis,
You can do what you're describing. What you have to do is using DOS fdisk
make your windows partition. Don't make any extended partitions. Only the
primary that you're going to need for windows to live on. Don't use all the
space on the drive either. I'd say 1/2 of the drive is more then enough for
windows.
Now, after you're satisfied with your installation of Windows stick the
Mandrake CD in the drive and reboot your machine booting from the CDROM. When
the screen comes up hit F1 and on the command line type "expert". (quoteless
of course).
The installation will begin and you will be presented with numerous prompts
and questions, none of which are too difficult even for a raw newbie who
knows his/her machine decently. A few minutes into the process you will be
presented with a screen for Diskdrake that will want you to define your
partitions for your Linux Mandrake installation. Here is a basic, never fail
partition definition solution.
/boot = 30MB
/home = 5GB # remember...this is a LARGE drive and we're planning ahead
/ = 500MB # the 'root' partition
/usr = 3GB # generally the place where all the binaries live (programs)
/var = 3GB # Mandrake uses this dir for web related files now as opposed
# to the /home dir these days...but thats another matter.
# the data base software also uses this dir to store it's files
/swap
note-------{split what you have left of the drive between your swap and an
and this archive partition...If you're using 64MB of RAM your
shouldn't need to be any larger then 160MB; if you're using
128MB of RAM then at the most 300MB for Swap. Any more
RAM then this and you really don't need a /swap partition.}
/archive # this partition is optional, although it's nice to have some where
to stick all your stuff when you download it. You can also use the
archive to store backups if you wish. Just an idea though...
The great thing about partitioning your drive like this is when/if you would
do subsequent installs the with this partition solution the only partitions
you would need to format and worry about are the / (root) and /usr
partitions. The data on the other partitions, and especially the /home
partition would be totally intact and safe from erasure during any
installation processes. Now THIS is real freedom!
As for which bootloader to use I'm partial to LILO having used it almost
exclusively since starting with Linux. (2 years now). I've used Grub in the
past and on another one of my machines, but I very much prefer LILO. Just my
personal preference. Both work. On older machines the /boot partitiion was a
necessity because LILO had cylinder limitations that it no longer has,
however, old habits die hard and this is one of those tried and true methods
of Hard drive layout that just keeps producing great results. So, if it ain't
broke...don't fix it. It's only 30MB's.
Good luck and enjoy Mandrake. In my opinion it's the best Linux distro yet.
--
Mark
"If you don't share your concepts and ideals, they end up being worthless,"
"Sharing is what makes them powerful."
Linus Torvalds
On Thursday 28 December 2000 04:48, you wrote:
> My install of 7.2 would not even let me do this. I was trying to put it on
> a 30 gig drive with W98 2nd being first. Would not work, at least for me.
> The board is an Intel D815eea, Matrox 30gig with ata 66.
>
> Louis
