Help Newbie set up Dual Boot

**iidavidii** · 09-23-2006

Whats up guys,

Im really new at this stuff and I am trying to set up dual boot. I only have one drive and have already got windows xp set up. Can someone lead me to a good tutorial or guide on how to resize and partition my drive with gpart or pm. Also would I need a separate partition to share files on? Lastly, does fedora automatically set up the dual boot part?

Thanks for the help

**devils casper** · 09-23-2006

Hi !

Boot up through Gparted and resize windows partition. you will get free space. dont format that space...... boot up through Fedora Installation CD/DVD, select "use Unpartitioned/free space for installation"........ thats all...

Dual Boot is default in Fedora ( in all Linux distros )... just click on all the default options proposed by installer....... you will have Dual Boot...

in case, you find anything confusing during resizing/creating partitions in GParted, post your existing partition structure here......

.... casper ....

**iidavidii** · 09-23-2006

c: 270 gig windows partition
d: 8.5 gig recovery partition
e,f,g,h,i,j - assigned to cd's and card readers

do I need to make 2 new partitions, one for fedora and one to share files between windows and fedora?

Also should I make the fedora partition fat32 ?

**devils casper** · 09-23-2006

create two new partitions...

1. FAT32 ---- for Data sharing between Windows and Fedora...
2. Fedora--- dont format this partition....... leave it as unpartitioned/free space... no label... fedora uses ext3 file system. installer will format this partition itself.
actually installer will divide this free space in three partitions... 1 boot. 2. root and 3. SWAP... let installer do whatever it ask..... just give it a free/unformatted space...

.... casper....

**iidavidii** · 09-23-2006

thanks for all the help

any suggustions other than gpart that is free. I created the bootable live cd fine for gpart but it would not recognize my wireless usb keyboard. I even found an old usb to ps2 converter that I had for an old mouse but it still didnt work.

Any suggustions?

**devils casper** · 09-23-2006

Hi !

try Partition Magic now....... i never recommend PM... it creates a lot of problems... be careful... only create/resize partitions with it. DON'T select anything else like linux format, boot magic etc.....

.... casper ....

**iidavidii** · 09-23-2006

Hmm I really dont have an extra 60 bucks sitting around for me to use PM just one time. Is there any other programs I can use?

**rcgreen** · 09-24-2006

If you have the genuine microsoft cd, you could reinstall
windows. When it begins to install, you could partition the disk
to only give a certain amount of space to windows. The remaining
unpartitioned space would then be available for installing linux.

Most people hate to repartition and reinstall, but I find it less stressful
than resizing an existing setup. It used to be the only way to do it.
I am superstitious. I feel a resized partition has a greater chance
of being unstable.

If you google for it, you may find more than one free partition resizing
program.

**iidavidii** · 09-24-2006

Thanks for the suggustion.

My hp desktop didnt come with the windows cd. Plus I would really hate to format. Man, this task is beginning to be more dificult than i thought it would be

**iidavidii** · 09-24-2006

im having trouble finding a good free one. Anyone have any suggustions?

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