Just install XP home on a fat32 partition. If you need some convincing on file systems for Xp, read this ....
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q310525 On Mon, 2001-12-31 at 22:18, Steven Murdoch wrote: > Hi all, > > I'll be buying a new desktop PC soon (1-2 months), and one of the > requirements is that it will dual boot Windows XP and Linux (probably > Redhat or Mandrake, maybe Debian if I am comfortable with it by that time). > I've had a lot of hassle with small/one-man companies so I've decided to go > for a large one, probably Evesham or Mesh, so getting a dual-boot is pretty > much impossible. > > Therefore I will be getting one with WinXP Home (Pro doesn't seem to do > much extra that I need), and an extra hard drive. I'll then use this extra > hard drive to install Linux on, mostly ext2fs (or ReiserFS maybe, I'll just > stick with the distro default) and a small (<1Gb) Fat32 for transfer since > I haven't heard good things about ext2fs on Windows or NTFS on Linux. > > I was in PC World Braehead, today and asked about this plan, and they > seemed OK about it (last year I asked the same question and they either > said it would break the computer, that it would invalidate the warranty, or > "is Linux a word processor?"). > However the guy I spoke to said that to dual boot I would need to get Win2K > Pro, since "they use different filesystems and Win2K Home doesn't use NTFS". > > I was quite unconvinced about this since I am pretty sure that Win2K Home > does use NTFS, but is there anything in what this guy is saying? Are there > problems between Linux and XP Home that are not there for XP Pro? > > Also has anyone tried dual booting XP and Linux? If so did you use the M$ > Bootloader, GRUB, LILO or something else. Any advice and/or stories would > be greatly appreciated. > > P.S. I almost fell over when I was in PCWorld when I mentioned Linux the > member of staff I spoke to said they had a Linux machine in store. Just > one, a Patriot Cyrix 533, 64Mb RAM, 10Gb HD with 17" Monitor of �399. I > thought this is pretty good for a basic machine, considering it is over > twice the spec of my current machine which I use almost exclusively (P200, > 32Mb, 3Gb). There is no distro marked (just "Linux"), the Corel Word > Processor and Freeserve access. The manager said it wasn't selling very > well and is targeted only to businesses, but it is a start :-) > > Thanks in advance, > Steven. > > -- > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > web: http://www.murdomedia.net/ > PGP/GnuPG keys: http://www.murdomedia.net/keys.html > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > http://www.lug.org.uk http://www.linuxportal.co.uk > http://www.linuxjob.co.uk http://www.linuxshop.co.uk > -------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com -------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.lug.org.uk http://www.linuxportal.co.uk http://www.linuxjob.co.uk http://www.linuxshop.co.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------
