A question on installing - FC5 32bit and M$Win2000

[Matthew Saltzman]

On Mon, 24 Apr 2006, Stephen Liu wrote:

> Hi Matthew,
>
> Tks for your advice.
>
>>> 1) installing Win2000 first OR FC5_32 first
>>
>> Installing Win2K first is recommended, although the other way around
>> is
>> also possible.
> Noted with tks.
>
>
>> Note that Win's boot disk and /boot must be primary
>> partitions.
> Pls explain in detial.  Tks.
>
> I'll use FC5_32 rescue mode to partition the HD first

Briefly, a disk can have up to four "primary" partitions.  One of these 
may be "extended" and can contain several "logical" partitions.  The 
bootloaders (at least Windows) require that the OS disks be primary 
partitions.  So make your /boot partition and your C: drive primary.  I 
would make the rest of the disk an extended partition and leave it 
unallocated.

When you run the installer, IIRC, you'll get a chance to delete all inux 
partitions and use them to install FC5.  You can select that, then select 
the option to customize your partitions.  Make sure your /boot is used for 
/boot.  The installer should make the rest of the disk an LVM volume.  You 
can accept the default layout (swap and one big / partition) or you can 
split the / into subpartitions (e.g. a separate /home for your personal 
files so you can reinstall without wiping them out).

When you get to the bootloader options, select customize and install the 
bootloader in the boot reecord of your /boot partition.

>
>
>>> 2) would their installation affect each another, i.e. the latter
>>> install OS will influence the first OS already installed.
>>
>> The only thing you really need to worry about is the MBR.  What I do
>> on
>> dual-boot machines is install the Linux boot loader in the boot
>> record of
>> the /boot partition.  After the install and before first boot, I use
>> the
>> rescue disk to run fdisk and make /boot the active partition.  That
>> way,
>> the disk's MBR is always under Windows's control, and the two OS's
>> don't
>> have to fight about it.
>
> I'll tab /boot partition with "*" making it active.  Tks.
>
>
> B.R.
> SL
>
>
>

-- 
 		Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs