Can't tell which hard drive to install Fedora 13 OS to.

[JD]

On 09/15/2010 01:55 PM, allen at math.binghamton.edu wrote:
> PartitionMagic doesn't run on Windows Vista which is what I have.  Also,
> space isn't an issue on the Data drive since it is completely clear (all
> 150 GB of it), so one drive has Windows installed on it with all of my
> personal data, and the other drive has literally nothing on it (which is
> the drive I wish to install F13 on).  So when I go to install F13 to a
> hard drive, I have to choose one of the two drives, and their only
> distinguishing characteristics are their serial numbers and whether they
> are "sda" or "sdb" which I assume stands for "slave drive a" and "slave
> drive b", and I would think that Windows is installed on sda, but
> assumptions are dangerous in the computer world.
>
> Thanks for the quick response!
>
> -Dan

While booted off of the F13, open a gnome terminal
Applications -> System Tools -> Terminal

In terminal:

su -

mkdir /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1

mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /sda1
mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /sdb1

ls /sda1
ls /sdb1

the output of each ls should tell you which one is the windows boot disk.

Once you know, which disk is windows, you install on the other.
Now, to prepare the other, you need to delete the ntfs partition on it.

Let's assume the data disk is /dev/sdb:

umount /sdb1

fdisk /sdb1
d
1
w
q

Now, you can install on the data disk (assuming it was sdb)

During the install, do not forget to leave room for about 2 to 4GB
swap partition. It will come in very handy if you decide to hibernate
the linux system.

As a final note:
If you bios has a boot disk selector menu (F12 ???)
then, at end of installation you will be asked where
to install grub. Install it on /dev/sdb  (NOT /dev/sdb1).

If your BIOS does not support a boot disk selector, then
install grub on /dev/sda (the windows disk).

Grub will add an entry in grub.conf to let you boot
windows, from the grub menu.