Fedora 7 and XP Pro dual boot

**kbk** · 09-09-2007

My neighbor wants me to set up a dual boot of Fedora 7 and XP Pro on his computer. He wants to use Fedora as his main OS and XP as his secondary. He needs me to install Fedora first and XP second so he can copy stuff from his old HDD to the Fedora HDD. I'm just wondering how I can do this? I've been looking around on the web for a little while now and I can only find articles that tell you how to install XP first and then linux. I hope I put this in the right section and I hope you all might be able to help me out. Thanks.

***Dapper Dan*** · 09-09-2007

Hi kbk... How've you been?

So you are going to install both os's on separate hard drives? Or on the same one? If separate, then let Windows be on the first drive and FC on the second. If on the same drive, Windows needs to be first or you won't be able to boot it with grub. Also, XP is likely NTFS so you'll need the NTFS reading package to enable Fedora to recognise the files.

If he is transferring files from a previous Windows hard drive over to a newer one, can you not install windows xp to the new one, transfer the needed file from the old hd to the new one, then install Fedora second?

I might be missing something here...

**infoshirish** · 09-09-2007

Originally Posted by kbk

My neighbor wants me to set up a dual boot of Fedora 7 and XP Pro on his computer. He wants to use Fedora as his main OS and XP as his secondary. He needs me to install Fedora first and XP second so he can copy stuff from his old HDD to the Fedora HDD. I'm just wondering how I can do this? I've been looking around on the web for a little while now and I can only find articles that tell you how to install XP first and then linux. I hope I put this in the right section and I hope you all might be able to help me out. Thanks.

Hey,
You dont need to install Fedora first. You can copy your old HDD data without any problem. Install Win XP first then Fedora and you can attach your old HDD and copy your data.

**kbk** · 09-09-2007

Originally Posted by Dapper Dan

Hi kbk... How've you been?

So you are going to install both os's on separate hard drives? Or on the same one? If separate, then let Windows be on the first drive and FC on the second. If on the same drive, Windows needs to be first or you won't be able to boot it with grub. Also, XP is likely NTFS so you'll need the NTFS reading package to enable Fedora to recognise the files.

If he is transferring files from a previous Windows hard drive over to a newer one, can you not install windows xp to the new one, transfer the needed file from the old hd to the new one, then install Fedora second?

I might be missing something here...

He has 3 hard drives, 2 of them are backups and 1 is a 320GB drive that currently has XP on it. The other 2 are 60GB and 100GB and both have backups from the 320GB drive on them. He wants me to install FC to the 320 drive and then copy his files from the other 2 onto it. Then he wants me to install XP Pro on his 100GB drive and he is going to use the 60 gig one for an external drive eventually. I could probably backup some of the stuff onto DVD but certainly not most of it, he has both drives almost full. Hope that helps.

**devils casper** · 09-09-2007

Install Fedora 7 in 320GB Drive. ntfs-3g package is pre-installed in Fedora so you will have write access to NTFS partitions by default.
Un-plug Fedora Hard Disk and Plug-in 100GB HD as Primary and install Windows in it. After Windows Installation, Plug-in Fedora HD as Primary and Windows HD as Slave/Secondary. Fedora will boot up by default. Add this code in grub.conf file to add an entry of Windows XP in GRUB.

Code:

title Windows XP
     rootnoverify (hd1,0)
     map (hd0) (hd1)
     map (hd1) (hd0)
     chainloader +1

After setting up dual boot properly, plug-in third disk too and edit /etc/fstab file to automount all partitions of other HDs at boot up.

***Dapper Dan*** · 09-09-2007

I would just install FC right after XP on the 320 gig drive, install the .rpm that allows FC to read ntfs, import the needed files onto XP and then boot into FC and transfer them over. Then, make it the second hd, make the other hd first and install XP to it. Grub will have to be configured to know where Fedora is on the second drive after it is moved, but that seems like the best option to get it done to me...

Edit: devils_casper beats me yet again...

**kbk** · 09-09-2007

Thanks alot everyone. Hope this all goes to plan

. Right now I'm still copying all his junk from the 320 to his other drives..Took alot longer than I expected.

**devils casper** · 09-09-2007

Do let us know how it goes. Good Luck !

**kbk** · 09-09-2007

So far I can't get past the GRUB prompt when I boot the FC hard drive. It gives error 21 and an error about not being able to boot until the kernel is loaded. I had the same problem with Sabayon and couldn't resolve it. I used the reccommended configuration and when I tried to change it to not use LVMs it wouldn't allow it. I don't know what to do, my neighbor wanted this done by tomorrow and it doesn't look like that's happenning.

**devils casper** · 09-10-2007

There shouldn't any problem in fresh installation. Boot up from any LiveCD and post the output of fdisk -l command. Did you try to re-install GRUB?
Boot up from Fedora Installation CD/DVD and type linux rescue at boot: prompt.
Execute this

Code:

chroot /mnt/sysimage
grub-install /dev/sda
exit 
exit

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