dual boot XP with SUSE 9.3

[draconis1410]

I want to dual boot XP and suse, i have no experience at all with Linux. I was curious about linux and wanted try it out. Could someone please tell me the step of Partitioning the harddrive for installing SUSE. Im using partition magic and it tells me if i want to split the partition before or after the original HD. Which side should i put the partition for SUSE?

[AlexK]

If you want a near troublefree linux install, you will have to reinstall windows, or install linux onto a different empty hard drive.

The basic way of installing linux is to:
Leave some empty unformatted space at the end of your windows partition, e.g. setup windows on a partition which is x gb big and leave y gb free and unformatted.

Then install linux onto the unformatted partition and do not touch the windows partition. when installing linux, assign 3 times the size of your RAM (but no more than 500 Mb) for swap space and the reamining for /, you dont need a home or boot partition as with modern distros, they are created automaticially under the / partition.

Oh and install lilo or grub to the MBR.

hope this helps.

[retired1af]

To expand just a bit on what Alex stated, creating a seperate /home partition has its benifits. If, for some reason, you need to reinstall your distro, you can specify that the /home partition be left alone, thereby keeping all your files and data that you've accumulated. This also goes for the personal settings for your browser and email programs.

[draconis1410]

thanks a lot guys. ill give it a try and see how it goes.

[a thing]

Also most configuration will be saved if you install another distro if you've the same /home partition and usernames. But sometimes you'll need to copy lines in /etc/passwd and /etc/group so that normal users have read and write permissions to /home.