I was a bit more confident when approaching the idea of installing fedora, but after reading about... I'm a bit more unsure of my talent in relation to being able to do this. So I'm trying to build a better understanding.
Anyway, I'm a bit above average as far as computer users go (I make well formatted XHTML 1.0 strict, use CSS to format, have set up a couple DAW/HDR's and can generally work my way out of most problems).. But not that much when it comes to anything like this. I've been wanting to move to Linux for a while, but lack of HDD space and heavily authoritarian parents have kept me from it. We recently had our whole HDD reformatted by an idiot tech who didn't listen to a word I said. The silver lining is that I now can install Linux.
After the tech reformatted the HDD, he split our 45 gig HDD into 2 partitions: a 30 gig and a 15. So, it registers as this in windows: A:\ floppy C:\ 30 gig partition D:\ a second 6 gig HDD E:\ 15 gig partition F:\ cd-rw G:\ cd-rom
What I'd like to do is throw fedora onto the 15 gig and have it coexist (as in, not harm) the windows 98 that is currently running on the C:\ drive (we havn't upgraded to XP due to a lack of funds). Not knowing as much dealing with hardware as I should, I'm utterly confused what I am supposed to do. Several bits about the BIOS only being able to see so much of the HDD and such just left me confused and unconfident. So in other words, how do I go about this? Will I have any issues with how the HDD is split up? Is there anything I should worry about and watch out for? Anything I should learn beforehand?
Thanks for any help and I'm sorry for having to result to this. I know there was that whole document that probably answered most of my questions... But like I said, it just left me confused and unconfident.
_________________________________________________________________
From Beethoven to the Rolling Stones, your favorite music is always playing
on MSN Radio Plus. No ads, no talk. Trial month FREE! http://join.msn.com/?page=offers/premiumradio
On Mon, 2003-11-03 at 21:40, anthony crage wrote:
I was a bit more confident when approaching the idea of installing fedora, but after reading about... I'm a bit more unsure of my talent in relation to being able to do this. So I'm trying to build a better understanding.
After the tech reformatted the HDD, he split our 45 gig HDD into 2 partitions: a 30 gig and a 15. So, it registers as this in windows: A:\ floppy C:\ 30 gig partition D:\ a second 6 gig HDD E:\ 15 gig partition F:\ cd-rw G:\ cd-rom
What I'd like to do is throw fedora onto the 15 gig and have it coexist (as in, not harm) the windows 98 that is currently running on the C:\ drive (we havn't upgraded to XP due to a lack of funds).
That should be doable, and 15GB is more than enough room. I'm assuming that you have no important data in this partition. If you do, move it all to C: partition or the 6GB harddrive.
Not knowing as much dealing with hardware as I should, I'm utterly confused what I am supposed to do. Several bits about the BIOS only being able to see so much of the HDD and such just left me confused and unconfident.
This is usually not a problem with modern systems. You can probably install Linux just about anywhere and have it boot.
So in other words, how do I go about this? Will I have any issues with how the HDD is split up?
Looks OK to me.
Is there anything I should worry about and watch out for? Anything I should learn beforehand?
I would suggest you read the installation documentation for Red Hat Linux 9 since it isn't yet published for Fedora. The operation should be very close to the same.
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/install-guide/
Try to understand as much of this as you can before installing Fedora.
For simplicity for your first install, I would try to convert the 15 GB partition to unformatted free space before starting the install. You can use fdisk in Windows 98 (DOS mode), or a tool such as Partition Magic or Acronis PartitionExpert (highly recommended.)
If you can do that, you should be able to use the install Automatic Partitioning choice and let the install determine how to use this free space.
Your goal should be to end up with a dual boot system where Fedora's Grub boot loader is installed in the Master Boot Record (MBR) with choices to boot Fedora or Windows 98. Unless you edit the name, Windows 98 will show up in the Grub menu as DOS, but it will be Windows 98 that boots. It is good to have a Windows 98 boot diskette around with a copy of fdisk on it so that if you screw things up, you can restore the Windows 98 boot loader to the MBR by booting to the diskette and then
fdisk /mbr
will restore single booting to Windows so you can try again.
More details at this point will probably not be useful, so I suggest you get some more reading under your belt and then get the iso files from the internet after they are available later this week, burn them to CDs and give it a try.
Hope this helps.
Gerry
anthony crage wrote:
After the tech reformatted the HDD, he split our 45 gig HDD into 2 partitions: a 30 gig and a 15. So, it registers as this in windows: A:\ floppy C:\ 30 gig partition D:\ a second 6 gig HDD E:\ 15 gig partition F:\ cd-rw G:\ cd-rom
Here is a guide to installing RedHat 9... unless there have been major changes to anaconda (the program that guides you through the installation), the guide should be fairly applicable to Fedora.
http://linux.about.com/library/bl/dist/redhat/bldist_redhat_inst.htm
The two things that you should focus your reading on is: 1. disk partitioning 2. boot loader configuration
Anaconda should recognize that windows is installed on the computer. If your E:\ drive is formatted (if you can actually use it), then you may need to manually setup your partitions with Disk Druid. If your E:\ drive is unformatted free space, then you can have anaconda automatically partition the remaining space.
If you manually partition your drive with Disk Druid, then 1. Make sure you are not deleting one of the windows partitions! :) Look at the sizes of the partitions... you should be able to see which one is the 16GB partition. 2. You will need to break that partition up into two partitions: A) Swap partition (the size should be 2x the memory of your system) B) A parition with a mount point of "/". I suggest using the ext3 filesystem for this.
You can create other partitions, but I don't want to confuse you here.
If windows is already installed, then the boot loader configuration will likely see that windows is there and you probably not have to do anything special. (The boot loader is a piece of software that starts when the computer is booted before an operating system is started. The boot loader lets you choose what operating system the computer should boot.)
-Tim
-
anthony crage -
Gerry Tool -
Timothy John Giese