Dual Boot

David M · External Since: Jun 07, 2006 Posts: 98

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Jan Gerrit Kootstra · External Since: Apr 08, 2004 Posts: 290

David M wrote:
> Hi folks,
> I am assembling parts to build a new computer with a dual-boot setup. I'm
> going to run FC on it 99.9% of the time, and for the occasional 'must
> have', putting on Windoze eXtremely Popular. Everything I have read says
> to install XP first (leaving a partition empty in the lower part of the
> disk for /boot, some space for XP and the rest of the drive for the ext3
> filesystem). My questions are:
>
> Should I format the XP partition with FAT32 or NTFS?
> How stable is NTFS under the Linux kernel?
> Any other issues that you have run into?
>
David,

Why not use VMware server on FC and run WinXP as a virtual machine
(needs a bit more internal memory)?

It is more flexable. If you need more space for a XP application, just
make a new virtual disk and add it to the virtual machine. You can both
OSes at the same time and file exchange can be done with CIFS/Samba.

I do this with RHEL5 and XP or other OSes as VM's.

One thing I do not recommend as VM's is "Wintendo". Most Windows XP
Games do not run in VM because DirectX has problems with the VMware
Video driver.

Best regards,

Jan Gerrit Kootstra

David M · External Since: Jun 07, 2006 Posts: 98

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Sandgroper · External Since: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 143

"David M" <NOSPAM.DeleteThis@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:467107fa$0$4673$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
>
> Hi folks,
> I am assembling parts to build a new computer with a dual-boot setup. I'm
> going to run FC on it 99.9% of the time, and for the occasional 'must
> have', putting on Windoze eXtremely Popular. Everything I have read says
> to install XP first (leaving a partition empty in the lower part of the
> disk for /boot, some space for XP and the rest of the drive for the ext3
> filesystem). My questions are:
>
> Should I format the XP partition with FAT32 or NTFS?
> How stable is NTFS under the Linux kernel?
> Any other issues that you have run into?

Yes , you will need to install XP first so that it can take control of the
MBR and then you install FC and get grub to write the grub bootloader to the
MBR.
(when you reboot after installing FC , hit the [Escape} key to show the grub
menu and then once in FC , edit the grub.conf file and comment out the
command "hiddenmenu" so that the grub menu shows on every bootup )

As with formatting XP with FAT32 or NTFS , it can depend on whether you want
to mount the XP partition in FC , if you are planning on not using XP for
very much , then the simple way is to format the XP partitions as FAT32 ,
if you want to use XP for important stuff , then format it with NTFS.

Later on if you want to convert the FAT32 system to NTFS , then you can do
it using a XP utility.

If you format the XP partition as NTFS , then you will need to install a
utility to read/write to the NTFS partition.

I have 2 dual boot systems both set up using XP Pro formatted as FAT32 with
one machine running FC5 and the other machine running FC3 I have no
problems with mounting , read/writing the partitions to any of the XP
partitions.

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
True Multitasking is having three computers and a chair with wheels.

Sandgroper
------------------------------------
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steveray.DeleteThis@KNICKERSiinet.net.au

David M · External Since: Jun 07, 2006 Posts: 98

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SadOldGit · External Since: Aug 16, 2006 Posts: 16

David M wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:51:39 +0800, Sandgroper rearranged some electrons
> to form:
>
>> "David M" <NOSPAM.TakeThisOut@nospam.com> wrote in message
>> news:467107fa$0$4673$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
>>> Hi folks,
>>> I am assembling parts to build a new computer with a dual-boot setup. I'm
>>> going to run FC on it 99.9% of the time, and for the occasional 'must
>>> have', putting on Windoze eXtremely Popular. Everything I have read says
>>> to install XP first (leaving a partition empty in the lower part of the
>>> disk for /boot, some space for XP and the rest of the drive for the ext3
>>> filesystem). My questions are:
>>>
>>> Should I format the XP partition with FAT32 or NTFS?
>>> How stable is NTFS under the Linux kernel?
>>> Any other issues that you have run into?
>> Yes , you will need to install XP first so that it can take control of the
>> MBR and then you install FC and get grub to write the grub bootloader to the
>> MBR.
>> (when you reboot after installing FC , hit the [Escape} key to show the grub
>> menu and then once in FC , edit the grub.conf file and comment out the
>> command "hiddenmenu" so that the grub menu shows on every bootup )
>>
>> As with formatting XP with FAT32 or NTFS , it can depend on whether you want
>> to mount the XP partition in FC , if you are planning on not using XP for
>> very much , then the simple way is to format the XP partitions as FAT32 ,
>> if you want to use XP for important stuff , then format it with NTFS.
>>
>> Later on if you want to convert the FAT32 system to NTFS , then you can do
>> it using a XP utility.
>>
>> If you format the XP partition as NTFS , then you will need to install a
>> utility to read/write to the NTFS partition.
>>
>> I have 2 dual boot systems both set up using XP Pro formatted as FAT32 with
>> one machine running FC5 and the other machine running FC3 I have no
>> problems with mounting , read/writing the partitions to any of the XP
>> partitions.
>
> Excellent info, thanks much.
>
What I normally do is to install Windoze as NTFS for the security
aspect, but also create a (smallish) FAT32 partition for sharing stuff
between Windoze and Linux. This has worked well for me for many years.

Cheers,
Steve