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I have 2 hard disks. On
Quantum I got XP running smoothly (and sometimes slowly too
). Now I want to install Fedora3 on the 2nd hard disk (
Fujistu). I need detail instructions as I'm new to Linux.
The drives themselves don't matter.
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1) How do I hook up the data cables connecting the IDE slots (there're 2) on motherboard and the hard disks ?
Just use the cable that is connected to the drive where your Windoze XP is installed. There should be a second connector that isn't being used.
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2) Which disk needs to be Master and which is Slave ?
Your Windoze XP disk is already the master, leave it this way. The Linux drive can be the slave. Read the instructions that came with your drive to determine where the jumper should be positioned on the drive. The jumper is a little black square with two holes in it already resting on some pins physically on the drive. It should already be set to slave but it may not be.
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3) Do I need to create a /boot partition in the linux disk ? If so, what should be its size ?
You can if you wish. 10 GB should be enough, someone else can probably give you some better guidelines for partition sizes.
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4) What should be the size of /swap partition ?
Typically 2x your physical RAM size. If RAM=512MB then swap can be 1GB.
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5) Where should I install GRUB bootloader into, MBR or the /, or /boot partition ?
There are two components to GRUB. One will reside in the MBR and the other will be in /boot. The MBR component is the bootstrap code and invokes GRUB so that it can either boot the Linux O/S or XP. If XP, it will invoke NTLOADER that XP installed.
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6) AFter installation, how do I boot into the OS's ???
GRUB is a boot manager and that is its job. Fedora will, by default, want to boot first and will have timer ticking down to automatically do so. You can change these settings after everything is working properly. Back up the grub.conf file before mucking with it. You can recover it with the emergency boot CD and put back the working one if you mess things up (this is coming from someone who messed his own up more than once on a tripple boot configuration).
The Fedora installer is very nice and takes care of most things for you.
Good luck
Thomas