Preparing to install multiple OS

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Guest

I have completed a clean install of Windows XP, but have only formatted
around half of the computer's hard drive. This is formatted as NTFS. I wanted
to install Linux on part of the remaining space, but received a warning
while trying out the Linux installation that the Linux boot partition might
not be compatible with my system architecture. Is this because I need to
create a windows boot partition with FAT format? How do I do this in Disk
Management? Or is there something else I need to do in Windows before I can
make the machine boot to multiple operating systems?

Grateful for any advice. I am especially keen not to have to install Windows
XP from scratch again, as it's already taken ages to get everything
working....
 
simonc said:
I have completed a clean install of Windows XP, but have only formatted
around half of the computer's hard drive. This is formatted as NTFS. I
wanted
to install Linux on part of the remaining space, but received a warning
while trying out the Linux installation that the Linux boot partition
might
not be compatible with my system architecture. Is this because I need to
create a windows boot partition with FAT format? How do I do this in Disk
Management? Or is there something else I need to do in Windows before I
can
make the machine boot to multiple operating systems?

Grateful for any advice. I am especially keen not to have to install
Windows
XP from scratch again, as it's already taken ages to get everything
working....
Click to expand...


You could try using the free LILO Boot Manager, but there may be more easy
to use free boot managers available these days.

Powerquest seemed to have been swallowed up and digested by Symantec, so now
the easy was to do it would be to buy Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0.

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/diskdirectorsuite/multibooting.html

ss.
 
simonc said:
I have completed a clean install of Windows XP, but have only
formatted around half of the computer's hard drive. This is formatted
as NTFS. I wanted
to install Linux on part of the remaining space, but received a
warning while trying out the Linux installation that the Linux boot
partition might not be compatible with my system architecture. Is this
because I need to create a windows boot partition with FAT format? How
do I do this in Disk Management? Or is there something else I need to
do in Windows before I can make the machine boot to multiple operating
systems?

Grateful for any advice. I am especially keen not to have to install
Windows XP from scratch again, as it's already taken ages to get
everything working....
Click to expand...

From where do you get the error message and what does it say exactly?
What Linux distro (name and version) are you trying to install? Is
there something odd about your computer's architecture?

Normally there is no problem dual-booting XP with Linux. Normally, you
would just install the new OS into a second partition (and you need to
format it with one of the Linux file systems during installation - it
doesn't matter what it is now) or on a second hard drive. Note that I
say "normally". You should probably read more about Linux and make sure
that you really know how to install it in a dual-boot situation before
you go forward. Google for something like "dual-boot Windows Linux".

Malke
 
simonc said:
I have completed a clean install of Windows XP, but have only
formatted around half of the computer's hard drive. This is formatted
as NTFS. I wanted to install Linux on part of the remaining space,
but received a warning while trying out the Linux installation that
the Linux boot partition might not be compatible with my system
architecture. Is this because I need to create a windows boot
partition with FAT format? How do I do this in Disk Management? Or is
there something else I need to do in Windows before I can make the
machine boot to multiple operating systems?

Grateful for any advice. I am especially keen not to have to install
Windows XP from scratch again, as it's already taken ages to get
everything working....
Click to expand...

What distro are you trying to install on what system?
 
You should be able to dual boot an ntfs formatted partition with a couple of
linux formatted partitions quite happily (ie one main linux partition and
one swap partition).

What is worth doing is backing up your current mbr (before and after
formatting paritions using the linux disks), using something like mbrtool.
This gives you the option of using the Windows bootloader, if you so choose,
and is also a safeguard, in helping you to get back into Windows if things
don't go according to plan.

http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/mbrtool.htm

Jon
 
The Linux version is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and I'm installing on a
laptop running Windows XP Pro.

The error message appears while I am using Linux Disk Druid to create Linux
partitions, at the point where I create the /boot partition. The text of the
message is:

"Warning: Boot partition /boot may not meet booting contraints for your
architecture. Creation of a boot disk is highly encouraged"

Having followed your excellent advice and found some online articles I think
the problem may be related to the BIOS 1024 cylinder limit. The total hard
drive space on the computer is 60GB and my C drive occupies 24GB. That is
followed by an unformatted D drive also of 24GB. The Linux boot partition is
therefore trying to be placed after the D drive which is beyond 1024
cylinders. It may be the solution is to slide the NTFS partition to create
space at the beginning of the drive for the boot partition.

I would be grateful for any thoughts on this approach.

Many thanks.
 
simonc said:
The Linux version is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and I'm installing on
a laptop running Windows XP Pro.

The error message appears while I am using Linux Disk Druid to create
Linux partitions, at the point where I create the /boot partition.
The text of the message is:

"Warning: Boot partition /boot may not meet booting contraints for
your architecture. Creation of a boot disk is highly encouraged"
Click to expand...

Are you SURE that you NEED a /boot partition? When I dual booted XP and
Ubuntu all Ubuntu needed was a / root partition and a swap partition. Grub
installes itself on the MBR.
 
Simon,

Linux bootloaders screw things up. Some drive in so deep it takes a
zero-fill utility to scourge them. So I wouldn't just simply "install" Linux
in a partition created in the empty space. Instead, use NTLDR and if you
want to add another OS e.g. Windws 98 or some other, then use bootpart from
winimage.com (no cost download) to add the other operating system to the
boot menu. With Linux that means not installing the Linux bootloader to the
partition with the main mbr, rather install it to the Linux partition - you
may have to click an "Advanced" button during the install routine to
re-direct where the bootloader goes. That way, you avoid grubbing up your
Windows partition and making an absolute mess of things which Linux is apt
to do.

You know, wouldn't you be better off just creating another NTFS partition
and use it for storage, backups, etc. etc. or even an alternative Windows
install?? Because Linux is, well, to be frank with you, a waste of time.

There's plenty to learn and do with an NT based OS such as Windows XP or
Windows 2000. Just dive in:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/ntcmds.mspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com
 
simonc said:
The Linux version is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and I'm installing on
a laptop running Windows XP Pro.

The error message appears while I am using Linux Disk Druid to create
Linux partitions, at the point where I create the /boot partition. The
text of the message is:

"Warning: Boot partition /boot may not meet booting contraints for
your architecture. Creation of a boot disk is highly encouraged"

Having followed your excellent advice and found some online articles I
think the problem may be related to the BIOS 1024 cylinder limit. The
total hard drive space on the computer is 60GB and my C drive occupies
24GB. That is followed by an unformatted D drive also of 24GB. The
Linux boot partition is therefore trying to be placed after the D
drive which is beyond 1024 cylinders. It may be the solution is to
slide the NTFS partition to create space at the beginning of the drive
for the boot partition.
Click to expand...

The BIOS 1024 cylinder limit doesn't apply to modern operating systems.
I don't know why you chose RH Enterprise 3 for your first foray into
Linux, but I wouldn't suggest that. First of all, that is an older
version. Secondly, unless you are planning to pay for support, you
won't get any - including security updates which you need. The
"consumer" level of RH is Fedora which is community-based. You would do
better to try either Fedora, Mandriva, Ubuntu, or SuSE.

You can download all those distros for free and they will all be easier
to use than what you have. A good partitioning scheme if you want to
share any data between the two operating systems is to make a smaller
buffer partition formatted in FAT32 and then install Linux on the rest
of that partition (currently called D: - we don't use that terminology
in Linux). You do not need to make a separate boot partition. Allow
Grub to install in the MBR and use it for your boot loader.

Malke
 
Text said:
Simon,

Linux bootloaders screw things up.
Click to expand...

No they do not.
Some drive in so deep it takes a
zero-fill utility to scourge them. So I wouldn't just simply
"install" Linux in a partition created in the empty space. Instead,
use NTLDR and if you want to add another OS e.g. Windws 98 or some
other, then use bootpart from winimage.com (no cost download) to add
the other operating system to the boot menu. With Linux that means
not installing the Linux bootloader to the partition with the main
mbr, rather install it to the Linux partition - you may have to click
an "Advanced" button during the install routine to re-direct where
the bootloader goes. That way, you avoid grubbing up your Windows
partition and making an absolute mess of things which Linux is apt to
do.

You know, wouldn't you be better off just creating another NTFS
partition and use it for storage, backups, etc. etc. or even an
alternative Windows install?? Because Linux is, well, to be frank
with you, a waste of time.
Click to expand...

Like you then, a waste of rations.
There's plenty to learn and do with an NT based OS such as Windows XP
or Windows 2000. Just dive in:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/ntcmds.mspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com
Click to expand...

Like re-installing, defragging, de-virusing, de-malwaring....and on, and on,
and on........
oh and I forgot - PAYING for software.
 
Gordon said:
No they do not.


Like you then, a waste of rations.


Like re-installing, defragging, de-virusing, de-malwaring....and on,
and on, and on........
oh and I forgot - PAYING for software.
Click to expand...

Text Stephen is a troll, plain and simple. While I agree with most of your
comments the last one "PAYING for software" is ridiculous. If you never pay
for anything where do you expect it to come from? Eventually Linux
programmers need to make some money or they will move on to something else.

Kerry
 
Inline:


Oh yes they do.



A waste of time is doing Linux advocacy in a microsoft peer-to-peer support
group. Do everyone a favour and crawl back to COLA.



Yeah, well Linux is free if your time is worthless. And in fact, Linux is
not even "free" then if one gets caught up in the chains and limitations of
the GPL one can actually loose a lot of money.
 
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