dual boot q's again

[Santilal]

Hey everyone. I'm new to Linux and just looking for some advice on getting Linux installed while maintaining my existing xp. I have partition magic and almost 20GB left on my 30GB drive. I just wanted to clarify a few things because there are so many different opinions.

1. When resizing xp should I create the partitions necessary for Linux or leave some unallocated space for Mandrake to do its stuff with?

2. When installing lilo should it go to the mbr or not? This is the one I see many differences of opinion with. What are the consequences of doing this way or the other?

Thanks in advance for help. I've been holding off the install for a while and am keen to get in to it now. cheers

[retired1af]

Make sure you defrag the drive before doing any partitioning.

Normally, I just partition a chunk off, and don't even format it. Let Linux decide what's best.

Grub, Lilo, NTLDR.. It's all personal preference. Some will say to load it to a boot floppy. I've used NTLDR, Grub, and Lilo. My personal preference is LILO and it's installed to the MBR.

[Santilal]

Cool. So there are no issues with installing lilo to mbr?

[retired1af]

Depends on who you talk to. Some will be totally against it. Me? It's working fine for me.

[Santilal]

Brilliant. Thanks for the help

[Santilal]

Just another addition. If I were to make a fat32 shared data partition should it be at the end of the disk or straight after windows?

[rong]

Cool. So there are no issues with installing lilo to mbr?

So much has been written and posted re: LILO and GRUB so I'm not going to enter the debate. However I urge you to first research how they both work especially since it sounds as though you have XP already installed. There are excellent how-to's all over the place about how they work and especially how to *fix* after the mbr gets zonked!!!

[oz]

Cool. So there are no issues with installing lilo to mbr?

I've installed both GRUB and LILO to the MBR on countless boxes over the last four or five years and have never had a single problem related to doing so. Still, some users report problems when they try to do it.

Go figure...