Safe to Install Linux?

[enat66]

I don't want to lose any of my data but want to use my old 8 mb hard drive and install linux on it and put it in the same machine as my windows 98 hard drive. I want to do this so i can switch between them with ease and have it so it will automatically boot to windows unless I do something (My parents and brothers need to be able to push the power button and let it boot to windows) And I don't want to lose any data on my windows machine and I would prefer to do this free?
So my questions:
How do I do this?
What distribution should a beginner install?

[PostCode]

Do it the way I do it. Use the BIOS as the boot loader. Simply change between IDE 0 and IDE 1 (or 1 and 2 depending on the BIOS) in the Advanced Options area.

Disconnect the Windows drive from the system and attach the old drive. Install Linux on it. Now, setup the Linux drive as the slave drive and the Windows drive as master and reattach them. Go into the BIOS and select from there which device to boot from. IDE 0 (or 1) would be the Windows drive and IDE 1 (or 2) would be the Linux drive.

Hope this helps.

[MishY]

Originally posted by enat66
What distribution should a beginner install?

I'd suggest Mandrake or Redhat - although Smurfy was singing the praises of a distro in Open Discussion a month or 2 ago - can't remember what it's called tho :grit:

[smurfy]

Depending on your hardware & BIOS, you may not be able to do it PostCode's way. (Great idea though - wish I'd thought of it).
Off the top of my head, only 2 out of the 5 working machines I have running at home let me change the boot sequence between different IDE drives.

You shouldn't have too much difficulty installing Linux to the second drive slaved to the primary (Windows) drive.
It will install a boot loader which you will be able to configure from within Linux (e.g. Lilo) to show which O/S is to be the default, how long to delay until default boots etc. This way, you can say boot to Windows if no key pressed to select Linux.

Alternatively, a GREAT boot loader (Free) is XOSL. Install this to your Windows Drive. Then remove the Windows Drive, install the old drive and put Linux on it. Then slave the linux drive to the Windows drive and use XOSL to hide each drive from each other when booting one or the other.

Depending on what you want to do with it, I'd recommend RedHat to anyone wanting to LEARN Linux.
If you just want a different O/S and don't particulary want to learn the ins and outs of the O/S, I recommend Lycoris Desktop LX.

[gstone4911]

Hi enat66

I have Mandrake 8.2 on an extended partition on my
primary hard drive.
The way I boot Mandrake is with a boot disk
that you create during the installation.
Without the boot disk the computer boots to Windows.
I tried Red Hat, and Mandrake 8.1 but they wouldn't
recognize my sound card. 8.2 did.
One thing I like is that I can access my windows partitions
and folders from Mandrake.

[enat66]

Thank you all. If I remember right I cannot switch between IDE drives to boot off of. I like the boot disk idea the best because my younger brothers may press button on the keyboard during the boot process, end up in linux, and come screaming to me to fix it.
I think I will take advice (since smurfy said if I actually wanted to learn linux) and use Redhat.
2 Questions:
Is it likely I will have the problems freejoe has?
And can I restrict access so Windows can't access the linux drive and linux can't access the windows drive? I assume they won't be able to write on each other anyway but is there a way to have Windows/Linux not see the other drive.
(If you can't tell, I have no clue what I am doing:))

[enat66]

What do I have to do to my hard drive before I install Redhat? How would i format it?

[PostCode]

There are three ways of doing this. Let it decide for you, use Disk Druid, or use fdisk. If you aren't sure, then let it decide. Personally, I prefer to setup my own partitions using Disk Druid. Fdisk can be a real headache to work with if your not familiar with it. Don't confuse this with the Windows version. Fdisk under Linux works entirely different.

Remember, the Linux file system works completely different than the WIndows file system. Each partition is actually part of the file system itself, even if they are seperate drives.

If you use disk druid, then you need to create at least three partitions. A boot partition, swap parition, and a / partition (this is root):

/boot and about 100MB in size.

/swap and about equal to you total amount of physical memory, plus 12MB.

/ this can be set to use the remainer of the drive. This is where Linux gets installed. The rest of the file structure will get created during the install process. The / refers to a mount point. Linux must have a mount point to start from, / being the root of the file system.

I also like to create a /home partition. In here are all my files and downloads. If the need comes to reinstall Linux, I just leave this partition alone during the reinstall. Linux will see it for what it is and leave it alone.

For first time users I recommend allowing RedHat set things up though.


Hope this helps.

[jmtjet]

I just had a bad experience with Lilo(read my thread)but I'm not giving up on Linux. I'm going to get a Trios switch to select which harddrive I want to boot to. There coming down in price now.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?sku=R75-1000

[enat66]

Well I'd like to report that RedHat 8 is working great. I gotta find the moniter fresh rate though. I hate these lines on the screen... I need to set it at 60hz

[enat66]

Anyone know how to change the refresh rate in Red Hat??
Thanks for your guys help

[BlackKnight]

I had Mandrake 8.1 but deleted it today to try SuSE instead. Will let you know how I get on.
(Oh and I need a copy of Partition Magic now so I can resize the NTFS partition on the laptop to put it on there as well!)

[prmckinnie]

In red hat tgo to the lower left where you start all programs and select control panel. You can get to the screen adjustments there.

gl mac

[enat66]

Thnks, I tried that but it didn't seem to help, oh well.

[smurfy]

Enat, there is a way in Konsole mode but I don't know it off the top of my head, have to wait till I get home.
You effectively re-run the video hardware config options.

[enat66]

Well if anyone can find out how to get 70hz as a refresh rate in the vertical and horizontal numbers linux uses that may help.

[MrGuru]

IF your completly new to linux and don't want to partition and ect ect to see if ya will like it.
try zipslack it can be installed on a iomega zipdisk
the entire os (tells ya how much poop bill gates puts in windows)
or it can be install on a fat32 partition in a top directory
and boot using lilo.exe
slackware.org

[enat66]

Thanks for the tip but I used the GUI to install red hat on a second harddrive and it works fine know.