Fedora dual boot

[John McGregor]

> Hey there, folks.
>
> It's been an issue for me for almost a couple of months, but I'm 
> considering on installing Fedora Linux on my computer, but on a 
> separate hard disk. My computer currently have the following 
> configuration:
>
> - Intel P4 at 1.4Ghz
> - Intel D850GB mainboard
> - 256 MB RDRAM
> - LG 16X DVD-ROM (equiv. to 48X CD-ROM)
> - A-open 48x write/12x re-write/50x read CD-writer
> - 120GB Western Digital Hard Drive with an 8MB cache (Master)
> - 30GB Quantum (Maxtor) Fireball hard drive with a 2MB cache (Slave) < 
> both running at 7200RPMs.
> - Windows XP PRO with SP2 running on the first (or master) hard drive
> - second hard drive currently vacant
>
> As I recall, I've seen many articles on installing Fedora on a 
> separate hard drive, rather than a partition on the primary hard 
> drive. The configuration involves (and it's painstaking and silly but 
> effective):
>
> 1) Removing your computer's cover
> 2) Configuring the jumpers on the hard drive from the 1st hard drive 
> from master to slave and the 2nd hard drive from slave to master


You leave your first hard drive as is and configure the second as slave.

> 3) Configuring the boot loader on the 2nd hard drive on the master and 
> it allows the user to choose which operating system to run either 
> Fedora to XP.

You write the bootloader to the MBR of the first hard drive. Fedora uses 
Grub by default. when you are presenetd with the boot screen, press any 
key and you will be presented with a menu -- then use the up / down 
arrows to mak your choice.

> Are there any drawbacks on having this configuration? Has anyone did 
> this configuration before? When I install and run Fedora for the very 
> first time, how am I supposed to view files on my other hard drive?
>
The easiest way to be able to view work form either  OS would be to 
carve out about a 15 GB partition on the first drive and format it as 
FAT 32 which both OS's can read and write to.

> I understand that Linux cannot write over NTFS partitions (in this 
> case, my primary hard drive is formatted with this file system and 
> running XP - as for XP it's quite the opposite in my opinion, but not 
> viewable. Is there a way to view Linux partitions while running XP)
>
All your data is going to be installed in your home partition so you 
could partition that as Fat 32, but you will lose the advantages of  the 
journalized file systems that are available with Linux.

John


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