Fedora 13-1686 Hellnoire

[JayCub]

Hi Paul\hellnoire i was thinking of putting fedora on my main hard drive along with windows xp windows 7 64bit and it's configured as raid 0 it has 500 Gb hard drive with a quad core processor...and 4 Gb of ram..for now im happy with the way that xp and 7 are configured and with my luck i will end up putting them back on if im not careful

could i get your advice as the right way to go about it as im more wary of using fedora on my main drive instead of external and don't wish to cause un-needed problems..
is there a sequence you would reccomend as to put fedora before xp or after windows 7

Thanks in advance for any advice

[Alboguy]

Hi Jay!! What you're asking involves a lot of work and time. First off you need to dual-boot Win 7 and Win XP. This is the difficult part and I'm not sure on how to do this. I've read a bunch of tutorials but none of them seems to work. So you have to write the XP loader "inside" the Win 7 loader. When start the PC it will ask you which OS to load. If you succeed this then everything else is easy. You'll install Fedora and "inside" GRUB will be written the Win 7 loader which has "inside" the Win XP loader. This is the last part and it's the easiest because GRUB will detect automatically the Win 7 loader. So when you start the PC you have to choose between Ubuntu or Windows 7 Loader. If you choose Win 7 Loader you'll be asked to load Win 7 or XP. You get the picture??

[JayCub]

Hi Alboguy thanks for getting back to me quickly at the moment i have xp installed and windows 7 in duel boot as it's easier to install xp first as 7 detects xp as an earlier version of windows and easily changed with easy bcd to say xp..and you say install Fedora as my last option that clears up the order on my main drive ... i will wait untill the weekend to try it out as im using snow leopard on VM ware again, not a mac lover but willing to learn a bit about it,

Thanks again your advice is appreciated

[johnshaw1917]

Hi Jay,

One thing I would add to what Alboguy told you, is that since you have an external HDD, my advice is to create a system image before you install Fedora. That way, if something goes amiss, you can restore things to the way they were. I have Fedora installed in a triple boot with XP and 7 myself, and as Alboguy says, GRUB sets up a chainloader, which allows you to boot either Windows or Fedora. Installation was a breeze and i don't think you'll have any problems. One thing I like to do before installing Linux Distros is to create unallocated space on the back of the HDD where I'm doing the installation. This makes it easy, when it asks you where you want to install Fedora, because you can simply check "use the largest available unallocated space". I really like Fedora and hope you enjoy it also.

John

[hellnoire]

*sigh* Don't need to single me out, as you see. I'm not the only one learning and teaching Linux here

But I believe you can install Windows XP first, then Windows 7, then Fedora fine. I've only done dual boots with 7, but I'd assume you could do it fine, since if I remember right, I was told it's using the Legacy Grub. Which means manual editing. But even if it's using the new one, it's no end of the world either if you ask me.

[JayCub]

Thanks Johnshaw i will create an image before i try to install fedora in a triple boot, and wish i had done that the first time i tried Ubuntu and it would have saved me ruining my raid setup...Thank you for reminding me .. you have saved me alot of heartache..

True hellnoire your quite right and these guys are great but as on many posts you come up with quite a few gems of your own

great imput and delighted with the response

[johnshaw1917]

*sigh* Don't need to single me out, as you see. I'm not the only one learning and teaching Linux here

But I believe you can install Windows XP first, then Windows 7, then Fedora fine. I've only done dual boots with 7, but I'd assume you could do it fine, since if I remember right, I was told it's using the Legacy Grub. Which means manual editing. But even if it's using the new one, it's no end of the world either if you ask me.

Hey Paul, I have you to thank for getting me into Linux! Just trying to impart a little of my experience to help others! And yes, Fedora uses GRUB Legacy, which I think works better than GRUB 2 IMHO. You can have Legacy installed on drive 0, with XP and 7 on a separate HDD and it will boot both of them, whereas, GRUB 2 will only let you boot 7 and not XP. The boys on the Linux forum explained to me why that is, but I don't remember all the details.

Hi Jay,

You're welcome and I hope all goes well. Installing Fedora isn't much different than Ubuntu and you shouldn't have any trouble.

[JayCub]

Thanks johnshaw it's great to have such backup when you need it, and if anything i feel more confident about tackling Linux, and i know where to come for good advice...Alboguy sorted out a few links to make things easier and i bookmarked the pages so there is always food for thought,

Appreciate your help johnshaw

[hellnoire]

Hey Paul, I have you to thank for getting me into Linux! Just trying to impart a little of my experience to help others! And yes, Fedora uses GRUB Legacy, which I think works better than GRUB 2 IMHO. You can have Legacy installed on drive 0, with XP and 7 on a separate HDD and it will boot both of them, whereas, GRUB 2 will only let you boot 7 and not XP. The boys on the Linux forum explained to me why that is, but I don't remember all the details.

Not a problem, I think I know Linux has been a hobby of mine since Vista rolled out from MS. So that should tell you something.... a crude product makes a geek stronger. And if you're willing to learn and the teacher, willing to teach... then you both advance.

[johnshaw1917]

Not a problem, I think I know Linux has been a hobby of mine since Vista rolled out from MS. So that should tell you something.... a crude product makes a geek stronger. And if you're willing to learn and the teacher, willing to teach... then you both advance.

Installing Linux Distros has been great fun, although frustrating at times, but most definitely a learning experience! Passing on what I've learned is fun also.