Install over XP

[Erik Hemdal]

>>I am trying to install FC3 on my laptop.
>>It has a 20gig HD formatted as NFTS.
>>
>>I have tried to use the auto and manual to create the root/swap dirs.
>>
>>    
>>

Gregory: The various posts for removing partitions are good advice if 
you are removing XP. If you have access to PartitionMagic, then rather 
than trying to adapt and adjust things, I suggest simply defragmenting 
the NTFS partition, and using Partition Magic to resize it downward. 
Leave the newly opened space as unpartitioned. There are several 
open-source tools for partitioning, but last I checked they did not 
support NTFS (or not reliably). So I invested in Partition Magic just to 
have it around.

Back up your NT data and back up the "system state" data (the Registry 
and a few other things). The native Backup utility gives you options for 
doing the right thing. Unless you can lose your NTFS partition this is 
really important.

On the XP systems I've fiddled with, you will most likely find a 30-40MB 
FAT32 partition already low down on the disk. Leave it alone (I've seen 
it referred to as the XP "maintenance" partition. XP needs it for 
unspecified Microsoft "stuff" (search on the MS Knowledge Base for 
details if you want).

During the Linux installation, let Disk Druid format the unpartitioned 
space for you for Linux. If you want to set up separate partitions for / 
and /home, etc. feel free.

I have never tried converting an NTFS disk back to FAT32, but why would 
you? That throws away journaling, and might cause difficulty with some 
of your Windows apps. I have had issues running Windows Backup using 
FAT32 volumes that go away with NTFS. I would not go backward.

If the installation goes awry and you have to recover Windows, be 
careful. If the system was running Service Pack 2 when you backed up, 
reinstall Windows, reinstall SP2, and THEN restore. Doing otherwise may 
render the system inoperative (as I discovered the hard way).

Good luck with FC3. I think you'll like it (I certainly do). Erik