Running SuSE and Win XP on one computer

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sudevan

18 posts

Geek

#9139 23-Aug-2006 12:24

Hi guys,

I need some information on setting up SuSE to run with WIndows XP on the same computer. Is it advisable to install them on one hard disk on different partitions or install them separately on 2 different hard disks?

Im planning to get a laptop so im not sure if the latter option would be available. How do i get the OS boot option menu (eg: select OS to start from; Windows or Linux) thingy? Is there anything different to be done?

I hope someone can shed some light on this. WOuld really appreciate it

Cheers!

bradstewart

4335 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#44556 23-Aug-2006 13:15

It doesnt really make much difference whether you use a partition or seperate HDD.

Install Win XP first as it eats all bootloaders. Im not sure about SuSE but most versions of linux will have a step in the install process for setting up the bootloader. That way you can set the default OS etc

barf

643 posts

Ultimate Geek

#44596 23-Aug-2006 22:13

when working with one hard disk, you can either resize XP's NTFS partition using something like partition magic or repartition and reinstall xp first onto a smaller partition. then just install Linux and make sure the bootloader gets configured correctly during the install

here is a guide for dual booting with ubuntu

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sudevan

18 posts

Geek

#44616 24-Aug-2006 13:38

That link to configuring with ubuntu is really helpful indeed, especially with the screenshots. Ill try giving it a go and see how it goes. I've read in a few articles that it's best to install Linux and Windows on 2 separate disks, you can install them on one disk but it's not advisable. I consider myself a novice user so I can't argue that point much.

But thanks for the info guys. Lets hope it works fine :D

maninimepo

72 posts

Master Geek

#44968 30-Aug-2006 05:13

One thing I would suggest when partitioning your HDD, is that you make a FAT32 partition for files that you want to 'share' between Windows and Linux.

Both Windows and Linux can read/write to FAT32, whilst Windows can't read or write to ext/reiser, and Linux can't write to NTFS. So it can be handy to have a drive you can save files to in both OS's.