hi guys i've just install a second hard drive on my pc from and old pc i had its an 80gig ide and about 3/4 is full with music videos etc. i was just wondering whether or not I'd be able to install Linux on there without erasing the data thats already on there. it already has windows xp installed on it and i wanted to remove that without having to delete everything. also how would i boot it once it is installed? would i have to enter the bios every time and change the boot order depending on which OS i would want booting? just to clarify i want xp on the master hdd and Linux on the slave hdd. i was planning on installing ubuntu or fedora any suggestions on which? any help/advice is greatly appreciated. thank you.
when you install a new os onto a hd, you have to format it so jus back up all your music, partition or format the hd, install the newest fedora core (i like this distro more than ubuntu), and put all your music and stuff back onto it
ok thanks, also do ihave have to change the boot order everytime i want to boot the desired OS or does it give you an option on which one to boot? and should i jus right click the slave drive and format, or that something i have do in a program or dos? im really interested in linux now as i have it on my ps3 and want to learn more.
I'd be inclined to change the boot order to boot from the old drive, but you won't have to keep changing it, keep it that way. Reason is two-fold: some distro's can do funny things with boot records without asking a question (can be fixed with a Windows recovery console, but better to not have to in the first case), and the boot loader on the linux drive can fire up Windows in any case (GRUB's chainloader function). And in that case, if for any reason the old drive dies on you, the Windows drive is completely unsuspecting and can keep going afterwards unscathed. Either of those two distros you have looked at would be ok for learning on, if you really want to learn a bit more, I've really taken to Arch. It might take a little longer to get up and working (ie maybe a full day or two for a newbie), but you'll learn a lot. Or if you're a real glutton for punishment, try Gentoo, you'll learn tons (even if the time it takes to install drives you nuts and you give up). Be sure to back everything up first, but just get into it and have fun.
More a useful reference for the linux old timers.. but newbie friendly too.. A little old, but still relevant. http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Multiboot-with-GRUB.html Then of course there are the smaller distros like puppy and dsl which will happily install to a folder (frugal install) without changing anything to do with winblows.
so does linux use grub as the boot loader or do i install it in a shell? also does grub recognize all file systems or would it be wiser to convert the FAT32 to NTFS? thanks for all your help
You'll generally want to format the drive. Although Linux will work with FAT32, you'll probably want to format to a more native format, like EXT3 or ReiserFS. If you want to take things further, you might want to create 3 or 4 partitions on the drive: 64mb partition as EXT2 for /boot (optional) 1gb partition for swap Bulk as EXT3 for / (root) (optional) 20-30gb as FAT32 as a Windows friendly partition for sharing data back and forth (or possibly set as /home) Linux is quite capable of reading/writing to NTFS these days, but I wouldn't try installing to it (even if you manage to find a distro which gives you an option to). Windows isn't quite as good at reading from EXT2/3 partitions last I checked. There used to be some programs and drivers that could, but they were buggy at best, though that was a couple years ago now. Bottom line is, you'll almost certainly want to format. Can quite easily make do with just a single / partition (everything gets created under it), but is often nice to logically slice it up, and having a shared partition might be handy if you have any common data you might want to share like MP3s etc. GRUB will be installed into your /boot directory/drive. The main issue with file systems is your kernel, GRUB is the least of your concerns. If the kernel isn't compiled with support for your given file system built in, you may have issues booting directly from it (but as a module you'll still be able to mount it).
ok well im backing up my data to the first hd now and im going to partition it like you said so the kernel will have full support using the native file system. i will probably start using linux more then windows anyway so the shared FAT32 partition is a stoke of genius! will grub recognize the NTFS file system the windows drive is using?
ok so i installed linux on the second hard drive. i set the EXT2, /boot directory with the bootable flag. and it installed fine. the problem now is the grub loader, it doesn't start up so i can select linux to boot it just boots strat into windows. should i have put the boot flag on the EXT3, / partition?
i fixed the grub loader problem i just changed the boot order. now i have a new problem it opens the loading/splash screen and after a few minutes it gives me this error: BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-3ubuntu3) Built-in shell (ash) Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands. /bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off (initramfs) i choose ubuntu in the end for an easier install (i thought) EDIT: fixed. thanks for all your help
Ubuntu is nice and easy to install. Are you able to select to boot from Windows OK? I'm not sure whether Ubuntu hides the Grub menu if it detects a Windows install, I know it is hidden when Ubuntu is the only OS present. If it is, you'll just need to poke around in /boot/grub/menu.lst (as root or sudo) If you want to mount your other drive under Ubuntu (if it isn't automagically shown for you), you'll want to play around with your /etc/fstab file (as root or sudo again) Also, be sure to have a look at Beryl or Compiz Fusion. Sure makes things pretty to look at.
yeah i can boot into windows fine, the grub loader was installed on the mbr of the linux drive so i just had to change the boot order in bios and it appears on startup. also it seems as though beryl and compiz have merged according to the website, i'll be sure to give it a look though. thanks.
Yeah, they have merged into the one project now, but I'm not sure if Compiz Fusion is considered more stable yet, as it is still technically a development release (thus the suggestion for Beryl). At this point in time, I don't thing there is a massive difference in features, but with the upcoming 0.6 stable version of Compiz Fusion that may change. Well done getting everything up and running, hope you enjoy using it!
