need help installing Fedora

[Tim Writer]

Elliott Chapin <echapin-rieW9WUcm8FFJ04o6PK0Fg at public.gmane.org> writes:

> At 07:21 PM 12/30/04, you wrote:
> > If I read your email right you have a 120 GB WD drive with Win XP on it and
> > a 30 GB Maxtor that is now just extra storage space.  I suggest that you
> > copy anything that you want to keep on to the larger drive and then install
> > Fedora on the Maxtor  ( which Linux will recognize as hdb) and let it
> > reformat the whole drive. There is really no need to use Partition Magic --
> > Fedora will handle everything and its safe to let Grub be installed to the
> > MBR ( this how its intalled on one of my systems).
> 
> 
> Safe? Suppose you have to re-install XP for some reason. I've experiences
> serious MBR problems under those circumstances. It's it's one of the reasons
> why I boot the Linux from a floppy.

What kind of problems?  If you re-install XP, it will likely overwrite your
MBR but your Linux partitions will still be intact.  This is easily recovered
with a GRUB boot floppy or a Linux rescue disk (KNOPPIX is a great rescue
disk, RIP [recovery is possible] is another good one).  If you have the
opposite problem (i.e. XP doesn't like the non-native MBR for some reason),
you can always restore it.  Simply boot an XP recovery disk and run:

    fdisk /mbr

to re-install the XP MBR.  Alternatively, save the original MBR when you
install Linux before instaling GRUB, LILO, etc.:

    # dd if=/dev/hda of=/boot/mbr.orig count=1

This is for an IDE system with first hard disk hda.  If you need to restore
the Windows MBR, run this from withing Linux:

    # dd of=/dev/hda if=/boot/mbr.orig

Afterwards, you'll have to boot Linux from floppy so make sure you have a
boot floppy or rescue disk handy.

IMO, unless you plan to run Linux only occasionally, you should allow Linux
to control the boot process.  This is because the Linux boot loaders are much
more flexible and powerful and Linux has a wealth of recovery tools which you
can use to diagnose and resolve many Windows problems.  The Windows recovery
tools are quite poor and certainly Windows is no help in solving Linux
problems.

-- 
tim writer <tim-s/rLXaiAEBtBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>                                  starnix inc.
647.722.5301                                      toronto, ontario, canada
http://www.starnix.com              professional linux services & products
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