Fedora or Ubuntu install questions

[neowing]

Hello ? I have a question about Install Fedora or Ubuntu.
My Question is:
Currently, I am using Windows XP SP3. I have only 1 Hard drive of 500 GB and I didn't make any Partition. Problem is if I want to install one of Linux such as Fedora or Ubuntu, Do I have to download Program that can Partition or Install DVD of Fedora and Ubuntu will make Partition itself ?

Of course, I want to keep windows xp. I want to dual boot, too.

Thank you for reading my Thread for the time.
From
neowing

 

[Leeky]

Hello ? I have a question about Install Fedora or Ubuntu.
My Question is:
Currently, I am using Windows XP SP3. I have only 1 Hard drive of 500 GB and I didn't make any Partition. Problem is if I want to install one of Linux such as Fedora or Ubuntu, Do I have to download Program that can Partition or Install DVD of Fedora and Ubuntu will make Partition itself ?

Of course, I want to keep windows xp. I want to dual boot, too.

Thank you for reading my Thread for the time.
From
neowing

Either installer will allow you to resize your current partition to whatever size you like, and then install Linux to your new partition.

Just be very careful when your asking it to do this in the disk partitioner. Its very, very easy to erase your entire hard disk without even realising.

If you'd rather do that in Windows, you can use a utility like partition magic, or a freeware version of similar nature to achieve the same result.

BEWARE
As with any changes to your partitions or hard disks, ensure you have current backups of your data BEFORE doing anything. I've yet to encounter a problem resizing a disk during linux installation, but its possible and you WILL lose data if it screws up (like a power cut midway through!).

 

[steeve]

if you possibly can, get another hard drive even a small one, and install linux on that...much safer

 

[ravisunny2]

Do as steeve says.

If you must install on the same harddisk, for ubuntu, use the wubi installer. Then ubuntu installs like a windows application.

If you wish to use only one harddrive, here are some suggestions
1. Do a disk cleanup (ccleaner), and a defrag (mydefrag)
2. Create the partition yourself using gparted.

 

[neowing]

Thank you for replying my Thread.
However, I have another questions. I will try to install Fedora 13 after 5 days (Hopefully) but I will use other hard drive which is slower (it is not Sata, I believe IDE 80GB).

Before do That, Do I have to Virus//Malware Remove" to Windows XP Hard drive ? Because I heard if I have virus in Windows Partition (Let say 500GB Hard Drive), will it cause install troubles (Install on Spare Hard drive which is 80GB) ?

From
neowing

 

[Leeky]

You'd be hard pressed to find any malware, spyware or virus' written for Windows that will run on a linux platform. Obviously its best to keep your windows installation as clean as possible, but the only way a linux install can be affected by windows is damage to the master boot record, which is easily fixed. Linux is all but virus and malware free.

You'd be fine using an IDE hard drive to install Linux on. It will make no difference to linux.

 

[neowing]

but the only way a linux install can be affected by windows is damage to the master boot record

What do you mean by the master boot record ?
You mean 80GB Hard Drive or 500GB Hard drive ?

From
neowing

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

Its very unlikely...but why would you live with viruses on you're computer? May as well clean XP just to clean it.

EDIT: I'd say if you're still running XP, than linux will remain completely unaffected.
No its not really necessary to partition nor get a separate harddrive for linux...linux will ask you to partition it (or use an existing partition) at install.

 

[Leeky]

What do you mean by the master boot record ?
You mean 80GB Hard Drive or 500GB Hard drive ?

From
neowing

It'll be on your primary hard disk, so in your case the 500GB one. You can run linux on a second drive, but to be honest you've loads of space on your 500GB so unless you really need it for media I'd use that.

The master boot record keeps the boot information for the operating system, further than that, I couldnt provide huge detail as I don't play with Windows, I play with Linux so thats one for the Microsoft techs here to explain.

Ubuntu uses its own boot loaders, linux in general uses Grub or Lilo. These will find existing Windows installations, and incorporate them into the boot startup procedure and therefore give you a option to boot whichever operating system you wish when you start your computer.

Its very unlikely...but why would you live with viruses on you're computer? May as well clean XP just to clean it.

EDIT: I'd say if you're still running XP, than linux will remain completely unaffected.
No its not really necessary to partition nor get a separate harddrive for linux...linux will ask you to partition it (or use an existing partition) at install.

I totally agree. I really don't see why people MUST use a 2nd hard drive to be honest. Linux will happily live in a partition alongside a Windows partition anyway.

My girlfriends laptop is a perfect example. One single 250GB hard drive, with W7 using a 100GB partition, / using 30GB, /usr using 30GB, swap using 4GB, and the rest for /home.

It works absolutely fine, and has been doing so for a long time.

 

[steeve]

the reason for thinking of a second hard drive is mainly to avoid data loss during installation of the second os. there have definitley been situations where things have gone bad and windows data has been overwritten or otherwise lost.

i take it even a step further:
remove the windows hard drive from the machine. install linux on the newly formatted HD. shut down and replace the windows HD. edit the grub menu to include windows.

actually i use a third party boot manager (BootItNG) which makes it even easier.

it's a personal choice. call me over-cautious, but once bitten...

 

[Leeky]

the reason for thinking of a second hard drive is mainly to avoid data loss during installation of the second os. there have definitley been situations where things have gone bad and windows data has been overwritten or otherwise lost.

i take it even a step further:
remove the windows hard drive from the machine. install linux on the newly formatted HD. shut down and replace the windows HD. edit the grub menu to include windows.

actually i use a third party boot manager (BootItNG) which makes it even easier.

it's a personal choice. call me over-cautious, but once bitten...

I agree 1 in 1000 times it might happen, but thats why you have a backup just in case. Anyone who makes any change to partitions or a hard disk and doesn't first create a backup is asking for trouble in my honest opinion.

In my opinion the partition utilities, and bootup software provided with Linux does the job perfectly. The only time I've ever encountered a problem is when people have misunderstood, or not realised what they're doing and have themselves destroyed the data, rather than the software unwhittingly doing it for them.

 

[ravisunny2]

Its very unlikely...but why would you live with viruses on you're computer? May as well clean XP just to clean it.

EDIT: I'd say if you're still running XP, than linux will remain completely unaffected.
No its not really necessary to partition nor get a separate harddrive for linux...linux will ask you to partition it (or use an existing partition) at install.

Linux will help in creation of the new partition, but it is safer to create a partition before begining the Linux install.

But do cleanup and defrag first.

 

[caravel]

The master boot record keeps the boot information for the operating system, further than that, I couldnt provide huge detail as I don't play with Windows, I play with Linux so thats one for the Microsoft techs here to explain.

The MBR is not microsoft exclusive. Linux systems also create an MBR in the boot voulme. lilo/grub/grub2 and the parition table reside there.

 

[Leeky]

The MBR is not microsoft exclusive. Linux systems also create an MBR in the boot voulme. lilo/grub/grub2 and the parition table reside there.

Thanks for clearing that up. To be honest I thought Linux managed it slightly differently and also stored it in a different way. You learn something new everyday.

 

[arcksonn]

Hi,

I would recommend you to use Ubuntu 10.4 LTS at-least once before trying to install the fedora. It is really a great Linux Operating System.