[tvonneida]

I'm not sure if any of this was posted before (I'm new here in this forum, and new to Linux), but I would like to try a dual boot with Windows XP and Mandriva Spring. I downloaded and burned the ISO for Mandriva Spring. I tried it out and liked it, but not sure if I'm really ready to completely give up Windows XP. Any info would be appreciated.

[Jonathan183]

Welcome to the forums tvonneida

You will find that most Linux distributions will automatically setup a dual boot with Windows. You should find specific instructions on the particular Linux distro website. In addition there is a short article here.

I don't use Mandriva Spring myself ... but before doing anything major like changing partitions on the hard disk or installing an operating system you should backup your user data.

[tvonneida]

hey, thanks. Have already backed up all files that are of importance to me. My windows laptop is soooo bogged down with stuff, takes forever to boot, my reason for installing a linux distro.

[Jonathan183]

Originally Posted by tvonneida

hey, thanks. Have already backed up all files that are of importance to me. My windows laptop is soooo bogged down with stuff, takes forever to boot, my reason for installing a linux distro.

You need to make sure you have enough free space on the hard drive to do the install. Generally 15GB or more should do for most installations ... you can squeeze things into less space if you really need to. Leave a bit of space for the Windows partition resize - if you dont leave enough space on the Windows partition it wont boot or will run painfully slow (eg if minimum size is 12GB let it keep 15GB).

Take the opportunity to have a good clear out of old stuff and you may want to consider putting your data on a separate partition for Windows and Linux to share - that way if you need to re-install an OS you dont loose your data.

If you decide to resize partitions before the install then I recommend you use PartedMagic rather than Partition Magic, the latter has let me down badly in the past. Resize of partitions will take a long time (could be a few hours) when you have a lot of data on the partition - don't be tempted to stop it part way through the resize process !

If you decide you want to do a fresh Windows install ... do this before the Linux install ... its just easier that way. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[scrarfussi]

Gparted is the best its a live cd but just too add i been using mandriva spring on a 5.5gig partition dual booting with window's xp it works very well but i don't install many app's

[blackpoopie]

Greetings and Welcome TVONNEIDA !!
Just thought I would share what I did recently. I did not want to bother with all the partition details so I got a second hard drive.
I installede WINDOWS XP Pro 64 bit edition on my first hard drive. Then I installed MANDRIVA from LINUX FORMAT MAGAZINE. I picked the maual partition choice and then I picked aut alocate and boom it was done.
Playing around with the partitions takes forever and with LINUX it wants about three different partitions and I found it difficult to figure out what a MOUNT point was supposed to be and what usr meant and did not want to have to stop and read up on all those new terms...
Last night I burned and ISO image of DEBIAN and installed it on my External 80 gig usb HARD Drive and it is working nicely.. I like it better than MANDRIVA.. I got a lot more very cool software.. I had some trouble getting software configure on MANDRIVA....
Anyway, that is a bit about my experience.. and I am brand new here too..
GOOD luck dude... keep on trucking ... you will lilke it .... later....

[tuxconvert]

See the following link, specifically section 4. This is how I did it on my computer. Again, backup any data you deem worthy to save!

PHP Code:

http://www.enterprisedt.com/publications/dual_boot.html