Duel booting-Linux/windows

[kid652]

Sorry, I am not sure if this the right place on this forum site or not, but I have a problem, and this is already posted :P

I have tried both linux and XP, but I only have one computer left to have both OSs on. I haveherd of people having two OSs on one computer, and I was wondering how exactly you do that. I havent tried this before, and it would be nice to get some help before I try it.

kid652

[ZeratulsAvenger]

Ok...
1)You have to split your drive into two partitions, at least for teh moment. One will be for Windows, one for Linux. So you will likely have to reinstall XP and make it take up however much of the drive you want, the leftovers will be for Linux.
2)Install XP
3)Install Linux, selecting the part of the drive that XP is not on(it should be unallocated space), and tell Linux to install on that partition. Some of them will automatically partition that space into /, /tmp, /home, etc directories. If not, then you can likely find a desired partitioning scheme on the website of your distro.
3)when it asks where to install the boot manager, select the MBR and have it install Lilo or Grub. It should recognize you have some kind of Windows variant on your HD, and will ask you which you want to boot to on a default.
4)Make a bootdisk if you have a floppy drive.
5) Restart and it should bring you to a menu asking you what you want to start, DOS(Which would be your XP partition), or Linux. Choose what you want.

If you need a more in depth guide I could probably find one or write one, but I am to busy now. Maybe this iwll have you a start.

[rightcoast]

I'll save you some time ZeratulsAvenger, these guides should work for the user. They are both Red Hat/Fedora guides, but they are thorough and will give them a good idea of what's entailed. If you are using Red Hat/Fedora follow them exactly. If not give them a read and Google for "dual boot (insert distro here)"

http://www.overclockersclub.com/guid..._fedora_xp.php

http://www.linux.cu/documentos/RedHa...h-dualboot.htm

After that, ask away!

[ZeratulsAvenger]

Phew, that works too. Thanks fightcoast... feelin lazy today