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#1 (**permalink**) 01-17-2008, 05:50 PM

Hi all,

I am an experienced Windows programming, but I am quite bored of Windows so
I decidend to start my approach to linux. I cannot withdraw with my Win XP
installation, as I have gigabytes of vital informations on it, so I am going
to buy a second hard disk. I'd like to have a clean Linux installation on
this second hard disk without playing with fdisk on the primary disk. Is it
possible? What are the main risks for my Windows data? I was thinking to
install Mandrake from CD boot. Does the installation procedure take care
automatically of the second disk?

Thank you all.

Fabio Marzocca
Rome Italy

#2 (**permalink**) 01-17-2008, 05:50 PM

Hello

sd (<marzocca@mclink.it>) wrote:

> I am an experienced Windows programming, but I am quite bored of
> Windows so I decidend to start my approach to linux. I cannot withdraw
> with my Win XP installation, as I have gigabytes of vital informations
> on it, so I am going to buy a second hard disk. I'd like to have a
> clean Linux installation on this second hard disk without playing with
> fdisk on the primary disk. Is it possible?

Yes. Although you may want to install the linux bootloader (lilo or
grub) in the MBR of the first hard disk.

> What are the main risks for my Windows data?

Being destroyed of course. If you don't change anything on the first
hard disk, the data should be quite safe. But keep in mind that it is
always a good idea to have backups. Your data cannot only be destroyed
during installing Linux, but also because your hard disk crashes or you
catch a windows virus or worm.

> I was thinking to install > Mandrake from CD boot. Does the
> installation procedure take care automatically of the second disk?

I think there is a way to let the installer propose a partition layout
and simply accept it. Although I don't know if it will select the
second hard disk automatically. However the partitioning program is
easy to use, and it is no problem to select the second hard disk and
create the partitions there.

best regards
Andreas Janssen

--
Andreas Janssen
andreas.janssen@bigfoot.com
PGP-Key-ID: 0xDC801674
Registered Linux User #267976

#3 (**permalink**) 01-17-2008, 05:50 PM

On Sun, 1 Feb 2004 11:54:32 +0100, sd wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I am an experienced Windows programming,

Well you should have no problem reading the partition menu step then.
Some light reading found at
http://doc.mandrakelinux.com/Mandrak.../Starter.html/

> I am going to buy a second hard disk.

Please read http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
I will assume you are talking about ide drives not a scsi drive set.

> I'd like to have a clean Linux installation on this second hard disk
> without playing with fdisk on the primary disk.

Not a problem. If you think you might want to write files to doze from linux,
Use windows tool to create a fat32 partition on the new drive and
leave the rest of the drive unformated/free/unknown.

> What are the main risks for my Windows data?

Clicking the wrong selecion. Watch out for line wrap: See
http://doc.mandrakelinux.com/Mandrak...tionDisks.html

> I was thinking to install Mandrake from CD boot. Does the
> installation procedure take care automatically of the second disk?

Why take chances. Take some control of your destiny.
You need to create two partitions labeled swap and /.

Click custom, click hdb (second disk) hda is your first disk.
click the free space, click create a swap partition, 2 x ram up to 512 meg max.
click the free space again, create the / (root partition) size it
for about 4 gig. You can use the rest of the disk later as required.

Here is some more information
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
slrnc0lc20.r4m.BitTwister@wb.home in the Message ID box.

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