UNIX Desktop Questions & Answers

I want to know if there is any problem that install windows2000 and unix or linux on same computer.I partition my harddisk to 4,
3 of 4 are NTFS, 1 is FAT32, I want to install unix or linux on this partition.how should I do???

Firstly, remove the FAT32 partition (if that's where you want Unix)! Unix will make it's own partition(s)!

Install Unix and a bootloader so that you can choose which one to use when your system starts!

but I have another question.
how can I install bootloader?

Most Unix will include one - FreeBSD has its own; Linux will use some standard ones you can download from the net - RedHat uses GRUB for example.

Another well-known one that springs to mind is LILO!

You'll have to check the details onn each of these for their configuration!

Can we use partition Magic?

Why Ia m asking is, My system is already installed with Win2000 and I wanted to load Linux.

Yes with Partition Magic you can conveniently partition/re-partition your drive... I've dual booted my notebook with xp and rhl 7.3 Here is my partitioning scheme...

.hda
.hda1 vfat primary hp diagnostic
.hda2 NTFS primary Windows XP C:
.hda3 extended primary
.hda4 Linux ext3 logical
.hda5 Linux Swap logical

When installing RHL 7.3 I chose remove all linux partitions and use that space.. then RHL 7.3 repartitioned its allocated space. The final partition scheme looked like this...

.hda
.hda1 vfat primary hp diagnostic
.hda2 NTFS primary Windows XP C:
.hda3 Linux ext3 primary /boot
.hda4 extended primary
.hda5 Linux ext3 logical /
.hda6 Linux Swap logical /swap


I have kept my Linux partitions at the end of my 40 gig drive - without considering the 1024 cylinder restriction for the boot partition. In fact the 1024 cylinder restriction is for very old machines and if you use P4 h/w I think you need not worry about, where you allocate space for Linux.


Cheers!
Vishnu

Hi s_water,
It may pay to check out your hardware on a compatibility chart, too. Just type 'hardware compatibility' in a search engine and follow the thread for version specific checks. Do you have a raid capable motherboard?