XST1 Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 Right now I have Windows XP on my computer. I was thinking of resizing my windows XP partition and leave some space for an installation of Fedora Core. If I was to install Linux on my computer while keeping my Windows XP partition intact, how would I do that? In other words, when the installation is done, would GRUB load and automatically ask me if I want to boot to Windows XP or Fedora Core? Also, if I was to later delete the linux partitions, how would I restore my Master Boot Record by destroying GRUB and pointing the MBR back to Windows XP? any help would be appreciated, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emon Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 Right now I have Windows XP on my computer. I was thinking of resizing my windows XP partition and leave some space for an installation of Fedora Core. If I was to install Linux on my computer while keeping my Windows XP partition intact, how would I do that? In other words, when the installation is done, would GRUB load and automatically ask me if I want to boot to Windows XP or Fedora Core? Also, if I was to later delete the linux partitions, how would I restore my Master Boot Record by destroying GRUB and pointing the MBR back to Windows XP? any help would be appreciated, thanks. I am not a fedora user so I cant really tell how fedora handles that stuff. But most distros out there will recognize your windows partition and put the necessary lines in your grub.conf file (or you could edit that file manually). And if u want to restore your MBR then you can just run "fdisk /mbr" from a dos boot disk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unimatrixzer0 Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 I've always wondered, can you see the MBR in windows? Like is it a file windows creates or whats the story? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjordan2001 Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 I've always wondered, can you see the MBR in windows? Like is it a file windows creates or whats the story? MBR=Master Boot Record, basically it stores the loader for the OS and executes the correct stuff to load the operating system. Also, it's the first sector of the hard drive. You "can" see it from inside Windows, although you have to do some extra stuff to do it (usually in a program since Windows won't let you touch it by yourself), but normally it's not anything you want to touch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splatnix Posted February 6, 2004 Share Posted February 6, 2004 XST1, as long as you can resize your partitions using 3rd party software (such as Partition Magic), then the rest of you plan is good to go. AFAIK FC1 will not resize partitions. FC1 will automatically add a Windows entry to GRUB for you, though by default it will have Fedora selected - this can be changed during installation or post-install. There is a default 10 second prompt time for you to select the OS you wish to boot. As others mentioned, booting off of a DOS bootdisk, or off of your WinXP CD, you can do fdisk /mbr to remove GRUB from the MBR and return to normal booting of Windows. Gaining the disk space back is as simple as deleting the partitions in Disk Management and reformatting to FAT32 or NTFS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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