Linux and windows XP?

[mmcshmi11]

Is it possible to dual-boot Windows XP PRO and Suse linux 8.1 PRO on one computer hard drive? I read that it doesn't support windows xp partitions.

 

[ssspy007]

i dont know if it helps at all but i have win xp pro and mandrake 9.0 on mine. i can read my windows partition from linux cuz its fat

 

[mmcshmi11]

Is there an option to make it FAT when installing windows xp pro becuase i don't know what i did but its just NTFS?

 

[VaTechHokies]

When you initially format the installation partition when you install XP it asks you what file system you want (either NTFS or FAT32). If you have a second partition that you want formated FAT32, right click on the partition in windows and go to format. That'll do the trick

 

[Codeman05]

I dual Debian & XP...and can read my NTFS drives.
Its also possible to enable writing to NTFS, but its not recommended so I decided to play it safe hehe

 

[mmcshmi11]

Do u know anything about suse 8.1 though, is it different?

 

[moorcito]

No Suse 8.1 should work like all the rest. It's the kernel that has the code to read and write to NTFS, and the kernel is distrubution independent.

 

[mmcshmi11]

Will anything bad happen to my computer if i try to install suse on my windows and it doesn't work, or will it tell me it isn't possible if it isn't?

 

[Arkaine23]

Linux

You need some unpartitioned space to install linux on. You can use something like partition Magic to shrink your windows partition and make unpartitioned space. Linux uses filesystems like reiserfs or ext3. I usually say give about 10gb for linux, make a small /boot (100mb) ext3 partition, a large /root reiserfs partition, and maybe a swap partition if you want... you could just make a folder inside /root for swap. And to make things easy to share files between windows and linux, you could make a fat32 partition (seperate from the 10gb for linux I mentioned) which both OS' could read and write to easily.

 

[mmcshmi11]

Are there any disadvantages to using FAT instead of NTFS?

 

[XWRed1]

Yes. Fat32 sucks, is prone to corruption, and doesn't support file acls or other advanced ntfs features.

 

[mmcshmi11]

so should i make my xp partition NTFS but leave a fat one for switching files between the 2 operating systems?

 

[Arkaine23]

linux

Yeah, that's probably the best way to do it. Linux can read and write in fat32. It calls fat32 vfat....

Although it can also read and write NTFS, that's still more or less experimental, at least writing in NTFS is still experimental.

That's the way my dual-boot box is setup: NTFS for Windows, Fat32 for sharing between OS's, ext3 for /boot, reiserfs for /root.

 

[mmcshmi11]

If i set up my partitions like that is there a way to make a boot disk that i put in so it will boot to linux, instead of having to choose each time i start my comp?

 

[XWRed1]

Yes. Some installers give you the explicit option to make a boot floppy, even.

 

[Arkaine23]

boot disk

That's how I do it on my dual-boot 2k/Redhat 8 box, bootdisk.