Seeking dual-boot advise...

[DoomUK]

Hi all, I'm new here *waves*

OK, I'll get straight to the point: In currently using Windows XP Home (SP1). I have a 180GB HDD. I've used Partition Magic to resize my NTFS (Windows) partition to 156GB, and (after first making a FAT32 partition, then scrubbing it) I've got 20GB of 'Unallocated space'. With me?

NOW, here's the question: If I were to install x distro of Linux (prefferably one with user-friendly GUI installation, but that's another topic), will this unallocated space be automatically recognised by Linux, thus allowing me to use the 20GB of unallocated space exclusively, without overriding any of my Windows files? In other words, is Partition magic a safe way to create space on your HDD to install a second OS?

I understand that the boot managers that come with good distros are preffered to Bootmagic (which I haven't installed yet btw). Any opinions on this?

Thanks.

[borromini]

You will have the option to use only the empty space, or wipe everything, so you're completely free to choose .

For the bootloader: you can install it on your harddisk, (the one from linux I mean), if you don't feel safe about it you can always put it on a floppy and make your system boot from there (for now, i'm doing that, until i migrate definitively to Linux).
If you're looking for an OS, i would suggest SuSE. Clear, intuitive and graphical installer. Piece of cake, and a distro with loads of possibilities

[DoomUK]

borromini, thanks for clearing that up So, you too recommend ONLY the Linux bootloader, not Bootmagic?

As for Suse, I have still considered this distro before, specifically an all-in-one retail package like:- http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...945302-8554236. Is something like this recommended?

[borromini]

BootMagic will not be able to boot your Linux, at least that's the experience I had. You're better off with GRUB, it's more tolerant so to say

SuSE 9.2 is freely available for download now, you can download the dvd-iso from the SuSE-site itself (just check the site, or have a quick look on Google, won't be hard to find). The only difference with the retail dvd is that the download version doesn't contain any commercial software (ie software for which you would have to pay (licenses and stuff)). But it doesn't cripple your distribution at all (unless you need some specific applications). I can only recommend you this distro, i find it working great... For DVD support and stuff, check out the multimedia howto for SuSE 9.2 on madpenguin.org. It works like a charm, and i'm migrating from Windows as we speak...

[a thing]

Fedora Core also has a great GUI installer (with a partitioner in it). The latest stable release is Fedora Core 3. If you choose Fedora install GRUB with it.

[Cabhan]

Ewww, FC.

For a user-friendly distro, I highly recommend SuSE. Very well-made and easy to use.

As far as a bootloader, I have never used a non-Linux one. GRUB seems to be the new rage, but it was very evil, and I got tired of booting manually, so I use LILO. However, SuSE (and most distros, for that matter) will automatically setup a bootloader for you. I believe that FC and SuSE both use GRUB. So dun' worry.

[rong]

The only difference with the retail dvd is that the download version doesn't contain any commercial software (ie software for which you would have to pay (licenses and stuff)). .

And the retail package contains two informative manuals which can be quite helpful both for the newcomer as well as more advanced users. That and the complete set of both DVD's and CD's make it worh the $$ in my opinon.