Re: {newbie} Setting up a dual boot?
- From: "Pat" <pkelecy(removethis)@insightbb.com>
- Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2006 13:17:41 GMT
"BearItAll" <spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1144056751.93579.0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Pat wrote:
I am new to Linux but am very interested in giving it a try. At this
point I mainly want it for some technical software (a couple of FEA codes
that I
use a lot) that apparently run much better (i.e. faster and more memory
efficient) under Linux than Windows. So I would like to set up a
dual-boot between Linux and Windows XP Pro and have a couple questions
about this I was hoping someone could answer:
1. I plan to install this on a HP xw9300 workstation (dual Opteron).
This
workstation currently has a single 160GB hard drive with Windows XP Pro
installed. What would be the best (easiest) way to install Linux on
this:
(a) create a second partition on the current hard drive?, (b) add a
second
hard drive for the Linux install?; (c) use VPC or VMWare?; or (d) ???
2. I was thinking of trying Novell Linux Desktop 9 based on the
assumption
that as a commercial product it would be the easiest for someone with no
prior Linux experience to install and use (hopefully no more difficult
that
Windows XP Pro). Is that a good choice?
3. With a dual boot setup where, say, each OS is installed on a separate
hard drive, is it possible for one OS to access files on the other hard
drive (the one with the other OS)? The reason I ask is that if I
generate
data with my FEA codes running under Linux, I would like to be able to
access that data with software running under Windows XP Pro (i.e. Excel)
-
and possibly vice versa. Can that be done?
I'll probably have a few more questions, but I think this is a good
start.
Thanks for any advice/suggestions. I appreciate it.
Pat
FEA Software http://www.freebyte.com/cad/fea.htm#fea Calculix looks a
particularly nice one. But the installation doesn't look geared to new
Linux users.
As for your choice of OS, I would say Suse is your best choice. Please
allow
for a learning curve.
Any good books you would recommend?
Installing your dual boot. There is always a risk involved in this. Even
though I could sit here and pick out a probability of success from the
air,
if you happen to be one of those that the installer has trouble with, then
what is the cost to you of lost data and time? If you are confident that
your current applications and data are backed up in such a way that you
can
get back the machine as it is now without problems, then you are fully
safe.
On the basis of that though you might decide that a seperate hard drive
dedicated to your Linux is a much safer way to go.
The computer is new and currently has no data on it. So if the installation
went bad and I had to reinstall XP that would not be the end of the world.
Despite that, my inclination at this point is to add a second HD, given how
inexpensive they are. Then if later on I wanted to undo it all, I could
without a lot of extra work.
I don't have any dual boots of my own, but did help someone with a
Mandriva
because it messed up his mba, as it turned out Mandriva had the problem
because the drive had too many bad sectors. So be caucious, have a utility
check the integrety of the file system before you start the install.
Shared area. Duing the install you reach the drive setup, you select the
drive to put your Linux onto, and you can section off a part of a volume
to
be a data share area. Unfortunately MS Win is very limited in it's file
systems, so you have to go for a fat32 format. I recommend to people to
use
this as a data passing area, because the use of a fat format in a network
situation with almost certainly cause problems (I mean if there is a risk
of a file being opened in a shared mode).
Do you know of any good guides that would walk me through the process? I've
installed replacement hard drives before, but never two in the same system.
I know normally the second has it's jumper set to be a slave (at least when
it's being added as an extra data drive), but not sure if that's the case
when setting up for dual boot. I image once those details are sorted out
though, doing the actual OS install is pretty straight forward.
Thanks for the help.
Pat
.
- References:
- {newbie} Setting up a dual boot?
- From: Pat
- Re: {newbie} Setting up a dual boot?
- From: BearItAll
- {newbie} Setting up a dual boot?
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