xp and mandrake 9.2 coexistance


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I have a PC with a 40 Gig HDD.

20 GB is on XP NTFS

10 GB Fat 32

10 GB Fat 32 (or should I say 6 GB, considering the diff between a 1024 byte KB and 1000 byte KB)

Now I want to install Mandrake 9.2 on the 6 GB partition without messing the XP that is on the 20 Gig partition.

also want to keep the option open to reinstall XP in the near future without messing the Linux installation.

What to do and what not to! How do I go about it...

how to prevent XP from getting messed up...

i believe if i use lilo or any other linux boot loader and later if i have to reinstall winxp, i will mess up the linux loader...

some one suggested a boot disk. will booting in the linux from the floppy gives me the power to reinstall winxp any time? or still it will be a tough job to do?

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I haven't had much experience with Linux... but if you really want it, buy a crappy 6gb hdd or something... it's much better of than having them both on the same physical disc (given your requirements)

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if it's the ONLY harddisk on your system, then it should be named "hda"

ok, install the mandrake on hda5/hda6 which is the partition with 6GB capacity (I'm not sure which partition go first)

there's no problem for a linux to be installed in a non-primary partition

about the loader, you can consider install the LILO in hda1 OR make a boot floppy

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Yes, Mandy will peacefully co-exist with Windows...

However, you are right in that it is not true the other way. If you re-install Windows, it will hide your Linux parititon. All it does is re-write the MBR, so it no longer points to your hdax bootable Linux partition.

The easiest way around this is to boot from floppy (slow). You can also repair the MBR after you re-install Windows. I am sure that Google will turn up lots of ways to do this. I do not run Windows, so I have never performed this procedure.

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