Linux help please!

[Mizugori]

I am trying to install SuSE Linux on a pc. Basically, I had a 27 gb hdd with WinXP Pro installed on it, and when I installed SuSE on it the installed somehow preserved Windows and installed SuSE as well. When I restarted the pc, a menu came up prompting me to select Windows or SuSE, and both worked fine! My problem is that I now want to install both WinXP Pro and SuSE on a 80 gb hdd and have it work the same way.

I tried using the winxp pro cd to part the hard drive into 2 paritions of about 38 gb each, and I then formatted one of them and installed winxp pro on it. it worked fine. however, when I installed SuSE it said something about "resizing NTFS partition to 13 GB" and now that the install has finished I have that same menu when I turn on the PC, but Windows does not work. I get a partition error. SuSE works fine though.

How can I do this so that each OS will have about half of the hard drive, and will work? I was so thrilled that SuSE apparently configures a bootloader automatically, because I could never set up LILO correctly in the past when I had tried to install SlackWare and Winxp on the same hdd.

so, someone please read this and help me, I am very new to Linux. Thanks!

 

[Phoenix86]

select Windows or SuSE, and both worked fine!

I now want to install both WinXP Pro and SuSE on a 80 gb hdd and have it work the same way.

If they are both working, what's the issue? What do you mean "work the same way?"

A common method for *most* OSes is to preserve the previous install and create a new one, thus giving you the option to boot both, unless you re-pastitioned the drive destroying the original OS install...

 

[Mizugori]

Did you even read my post? I'm not trying to be rude, but I very clearly explained that I am now talking about trying to install SuSE and WinXP on a different hard drive.

IBasically, I had a 27 gb hdd with WinXP Pro installed on it, and when I installed SuSE on it the installed somehow preserved Windows and installed SuSE as well.

My problem is that I now want to install both WinXP Pro and SuSE on a 80 gb hdd and have it work the same way.

 

[nonsequitur]

for some reason, the suse installer thought you wanted to carve out linux space in the window's partition. easiest thing to do, if you have the time, is reinstall windows, doing what you did earlier. then as you install suse, do it manually, and carve up the unused parition for the root and swap directories. if this is your first go-around, set aside a swap parition that's between 1 and 2 times your ram space, and set your root parition to everything else. as you learn, you'll be able to take advantage of advanced paritioning. but for now, just learn baby!

 

[Phoenix86]

Did you even read my post? I'm not trying to be rude, but I very clearly explained that I am now talking about trying to install SuSE and WinXP on a different hard drive.

Meh, I was drunk when I posted that... I don't know WTF I was thinking, even if I got it I'm no linux guru to answer you problem anyways.

 

[ameoba]

I tried using the winxp pro cd to part the hard drive into 2 paritions of about 38 gb each, and I then formatted one of them and installed winxp pro on it. it worked fine. however, when I installed SuSE it said something about "resizing NTFS partition to 13 GB" and now that the install has finished I have that same menu when I turn on the PC, but Windows does not work. I get a partition error. SuSE works fine though.

This is where you went wrong; you only need to create the XP partition with the XP installer, leaving the rest of the drive unpartitioned. Use the Linux installer to partition the Linux portion of the drive since Windows only understands 3 types of partitions - NTFS, FAT and "other" so it can't make the right type of partition for a Linux install