A few quick newbie questions...

[Jonathan Berry]

On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 08:20:43 -0500, Erik Hemdal <ehemdal at townisp.com> wrote:
[snip]
> > #2 - Want to do a dual boot between XP and Linux.  Do I
> > partition the harddrive first, then install XP, then install Linux?
> 
> That is what I would do to create a dual-boot system.  If you are working on

Yes, use this approach if you are doing a fresh install, or don't mind
reformatting and reintstalling.  You can do it in other orders, but
this offers the least trouble if you have the choice.  If you have
already installed Linux and have a partition that you can install
Windows on, you can install Windows and then boot to the rescue CD to
reinstall GRUB.  There are plenty of examples of this on the web and
in the archives.  Again, if you have the choice, do it in the order
you specified.

> a system which currently contains XP, reduce the size of your NTFS partition
> to make space for Fedora.  Do not alter the small FAT partition which XP has

To resize the NTFS partition, you will need to use Partition Magic
(not free) or qtparted (free).  You can use Knoppix or System Rescue
CD to get qtparted (Google the names to find the sites).  I would also
recommend running scandisk and defrag in Windows to get files toward
the front of the drive to make resizing less dangerous (always a
chance of messing something up, though it has worked for me).   You
can also turn off the swap file, reboot, and defrag before you resize
as the swapfile is usually located somewhere near the end of the drive
(a huge green (unmovable) block in the defrag tool).

> created (XP needs a FAT partition to work).  Leave the freed up space

Uhh, I'm not sure what this "small FAT partition" is that Erik talks
of, but my laptop has XP and FC3 on it with no FAT partitions at all. 
WinXP does not need FAT, if anything, it needs NTFS.  Now, I've only
used XP Pro, so perhaps XP Home needs a FAT partition, but I've never
heard that and it doesn't make much sense to me.

> unpartitioned.  Anaconda will handle formatting for you when you choose to
> install in unpartitioned space.
> 
> Hope this helps.   Erik

Jonathan