installing Fedora over Mandriva

[i2kdave]

I have Windows XP and Mandriva 2005 installed in a dual boot system and I want to get rid of Mandriva and replace it with Fedora. My concern is with LiLo, I don't want to risk screwing up my MBR and not being able to get into Windows. Should I delete the current Linux partitions and then install Fedora, or just go ahead and install Fedora without first removing Mandriva?

[AlexK]

when you install fedora, you will be given a choice on where to install it. If you want to fully delete Mandriva, just tell fedora to install on the present Mandriva partition. Now for lilo/grub, just tell it to install to the MBR of the 1st hard drive and enter the details for windows.

Btw, I think Fedora uses grub rather than lilo for booting by default.

Also it is a good idea to backup your windows install and other prescious data before carrying out anything like this.

[twoHats]

I've installed FC4 final a couple of times recently, and AlexK is right on as usual, it uses Grub, and dosn't even have lilo (at least my version ).

In terms of the MBR - the problems usually come from the other direction. ie you want to install Windoze XP over your old Win95 partition, and you have a really slick Linux setup on another partition. Windoze dosn't see Linux partitions at all (or at least pretends not to) - and will alway over write the MBR with Linux excluded. Linux, otoh, sees the Windoze partition, and in almost every case, will add it to the boot menu.

Also - Linux boot options are easy to read/change, being just text files.

Have fun