Ricardo Rodriguez wrote:
"Are you going to dual-boot some version of Windows
and Linux? If so, the Mandriva installer will do a
nice job of it."
Yes, I'm dual booting and for doing this I have just
got a very cool software called "Partition Manager"
which also deals with booting.
I was very happy with Partition Magic before until I
learn that is now a product of Symantec. My old
version of PMagic does not work with XP, so I got the
PManager which was a good thing for me.
I don't recommend Partition Magic because of the way it always expects
to see a partition end on a cylinder boundary (Microsoft's partitioning
tool creates partitions this way, but it isn't necessary, other OS's
don't, and it doesn't affect operation.)
If I have to do partitioning from Windows I use Paragon Hard Drive
manager. But you don't really need it. The partition tool in Mandriva
will do a good job also, and can resize your FAT or NTFS partitions easily.
Partition Magic is OK as long as it's the only tool you use, and don't
try to resize any non M$ partition later, and use the other OS to format
it's partitions.
I say that becuase as a newbie, depending on LILO/GRUB
with NTLDR I would have lost everything a few days
ago, so working with a 3rd parity software was my only
way out.
Lilo works fine as a bootloader, and will happily boot Windows. I
usually set up my dual boot setups a bit differently, but won't go into
that now. Some day if you are interested, search the archives for XOSL,
and you'll discover the thread we had going on bootloaders and boot schemes.
If you puke a lilo install in the MBR, you can always recover a working
Windows boot with the Windows recovery console and a /fixboot and
/fixmbr command, then reinstall lilo. Do make a boot floppy for Linux,
though just to be safe.
Anyway, what I did with PManager was: paritioning my
80GB in 50GB(XP for my wife and I) and the rest for my
linux to be installed.
Fine. What you have ready will work nicely. If your M$ partition is NTFS
you will see it from Mandriva, read only. It it's FAT you can read-write.
I wouldn't change anything about the partition you set up for Linux. You
can do that with the Mandriva installer. Here's what I'd do with the
Mandriva installer: Delete the EXT3 partition you made.
If you didn't create an extended partition (maybe you did?), create that
with the drive space above your Windows partition, and put the below in
it. If you already did, follow the scheme below.
Create a Linux Swap partition of 2x your RAM or 512 megs max. Then
create a ReiserFS partition with the rest of the space. I prefer
ReiserFS over EXT3 because it is a lot more resilient to data loss. I've
lost stuff to EXT3, but never ReiserFS. It's also a bit faster on
access. You'll see it as a choice in your Mandriva installer, when you
get to the partitioning part of the install.
Use the Mandriva partitioning tool to format the 2 Linux partitions.
When you mention: "Just do a defrag before installing
Linux", you mean the Windows defrag?
Yes, just windows. You don't defrag Linux. (It's got a proper file
system :) ) But you're all set already.
What are you going to do about a bootloader? Use Mandriva's to boot
Linux or Windows? This'll work fine, and is the default. If you have
something else in mind, let me know, as you'll have to put the Linux
bootloader into the linux / partition rather than in the drive's MBR.
Then you chain to it with some other bootloader.
Really, using Mandriva's is simple and reliable. That's what I usually
do. It'll set itself to do the Windows and Linux boot list automatically
for you.
I've done way too many M$ installs, and the Mandriva installers beat
Microsoft's hands down. This will be a fun project. And you're going to
love linux.
Rick Kunath
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