Linux Installtion

[tomherry]

Hi,
I have Windows XP SP. And i want to install Linux on my system. I have installed but my XP Corrupted than I reinstalled window than my linux is corrupted .
Any one tell me How to installed linux and Windows both

thanks in advance

[ShuckyD]

which distrobution of linux?

[CMonster]

google "dual boot windows linux"

basically (single drive):

partition the drive giving MS Windows the first partition, save enough free space to install Linux,

Install MS-W first, then install Linux on the free space, the installer for your distribution of Linux will have a partitioning tool to create the Linux and swap partitions in the free space, and most Linux distributions offer to set up the system for dual boot. In the case of a single drive, after making sure the option to boot MS-W is on the boot loader and points to the correct partition, the boot loader is installed on the MBR (master boot record) of the drive -either /dev/hda or /dev/sda

in the case of large drives (>137.5 GB) Older versions of XP may require some stupid drive geometry overlay (usually contained in the drive software)*** to see all the available space --this software is generally not compatible with Linux partitioning tools and if you repartition the drive with Linux it changes the partition table -- rendering MS-W unbootable (spoken from experience).

In the case of two drives it can be a little more complicated, and in order to boot MS-W it must think it is the first drive

anyway there is a nice beginners course/tutorial over at http://www.linux.org if you need it

*** or XPs IDE drivers need to be updated but this does little good for the drive you have already installed it on

[#43 fan]

Also make sure you allot enough space for each OS.
Corrupted GRUB (Linux's default bootloader) once. Wasn't a fun problem.

[Keymaker]

http://neosmart.net/gallery/v/neosmart/EasyBCD/1_70/

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php

[tomherry]

Thanks ... for reply it I will try your suggestion and now i am able to do it.