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Thread ID: 34249 2003-06-08 05:31:00 I want to Linux HadO (796) Press F1
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150837 2003-06-08 05:31:00 I was playing around with the Knoppix bootable PCWorld coverdisc the other day and decided to give Linux a good go. I found installation instructions for Knoppix via SearchNZ.

I am an experienced PC user with DOS 6.2, Win3.11, Win95-98 and Win2000 PRO SP3 - my current OS.

I have a few questions:

1. I have 2 HDDs - #1 is a 40GB NTFS used for Win2000, #2 is a 80GB with 2 NTFS partitions - 40GB for HDD1 backup, 30GB for Media files and I have spare approx 7.26GB of unformatted space which I want to use for Linux - I assume the Linux installation should be able to use this space for it's own partitions and format them itself - is this correct?

2. I want to dual boot with Win2000 - with this configuration is it possible? eg. Linux bootable from HDD2? The howto on installing Knoppix states that Linux will set up a bootloader but says to take care as there is a risk that Windows will become unbootable - which I dont want. Can someone please advise the procedure?

Cheers
HadO (796)
150838 2003-06-08 05:43:00 1. Yes Linux will create (at your instructions) partitions at install time. Would suggest at least / (root) and /home.

2. Linux can be booted from almost any partition on your hard drives - primary or extended. Although I have had trouble with anything trying to boot off the secondary IDE channel. I would prefer to use LILO rather than GRUB as the boot loader. While setting up dual booting is potentially dangerous, I have never had a situation I could not recover from. Always make you make a boot disk when you install Linux. Also if you can get into the Windows 2000 Recovery Console you can always do a "fixmbr" to restore the Master Boot Record.
JohnD (509)
150839 2003-06-08 06:01:00 JohnD,

Thanks for the info - you have confirmed what I was thinking - better to be safe than sorry :D. I have Win2000 startup and Win98/DOS boot disks and I will be making a GHOST of my system drive before starting as per usual - I am also familiar with the Win2000 Recovery Console.

Cheers
HadO (796)
150840 2003-06-08 07:48:00 I'm having trouble with the Knoppix install - mainly because the "guided" install is all in German?! I had specified english before startup - any ideas?

Is this an early release with no English support?? The KDE desktop and startup is all in English!
HadO (796)
150841 2003-06-08 07:56:00 I got the same thing with the PC World version. bmason (508)
150842 2003-06-08 07:58:00 It's pretty sad - setting up partitions and such is a little risky when you can't read what you are doing - I think it also comes up with a script error and then dumps you out of the install program.

Does anyone know if it's possible to install the PC World version of Knoppix???
HadO (796)
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