Dual booting windows xp and mandrake linux ~how to~

[Paridoth]

ok i just got my new comptuer =) yay! neways and i currently have it dual booting windows xp pro and xp pro x64. below is a partitionMagic screen shot of what my hardrive looks like.
http://img164.exs.cx/img164/3672/now5fx.jpg
the C: drive is the xp pro im using right now, and my main operating system, the second (G): is my xp X64.
what i want to know is what i need to resize and move around and create on my hardrive (without killing either of my windows installs) before i boot to the mandrake disc (10.2rcx86_64 if it matters) and then after i do that what i need to do durring and after the mandrake install. i havent installed mandrake on a computer for about 6 months, and im still rather new to linux in general so go easy on me in the terminology please =)

[budman7]

I would use PM to resize your 45 Gig partition into at least 15-20 gigs for MDK I think 3-5 is all that is necessary, but if you have the space).
Or you can use the partition after XP Pro. Just point Mandrake at it during the install.(use the manual partitioning tool for this).

Or you can let MDK come up with an Automatic partitioning proposal.

After insall, Lilo will setup setup a dual boot. One of the options will be Windows, the other will be Mandrake. When you select Windows you will get your original two options.

Hope this helps.

[Paridoth]

so if i let linux handle my booting ~lilo or grub im guessing~ can i choose windows to boot to and linux? and if i let windows handle my booting can i do like whys? what are my options before i start pushing buttons

[retired1af]

You can use LILO, GRUB, or even NTLDR under Windows. It's all up to you. My personal preference is LILO.

[budman7]

There is a way to use ntldr to boot Linux, but I heard it is hard to configure. Search around on this site, people have posted links on how-to's for booting linux with ntldr.
I have just found it easier to use linux bootloaders to boot windows and linux. Actually linux bootloaders load ntldr, and then let ntldr do the work.

[Frankinmerth]

ntloader works find once you do it, the gist of what you must do is:

install linux
boot linux from install disks in rescue mode
mount your floppy
run a command to generate a boot image and save it on a floppy
boot windows, or a NTFS friendly boot disk
copy that image to the windows drive
change boot.ini to present a linux option and point to it

Its a bit of a bugger, but I went that way as a new user because linux borked my partitions and I was deathly afraid of letting it get into the MBR as well and possibly not recovering. I probably did something wrong though, pray you don't!