[Westwales] Linux with XP

[Matthew Bennett]

Pax wrote:
> I'm an old hand at dual install, I was asking the question because I heard
> that there
> were problems with XP dual boots in the early days and I didn't want egg
> all over my
> face if I wiped XP off a machine, never having dual booted with anything
> later than '98.

Yeah, there were - problem is, windows XP has it's own bootloader, which
caused a lot of confusion. Not to mention the fact that Microsoft
implemented it in a completely different way to almost every other
bootloader ever invented!! I'm sure Mandriva will set it up automatically
though - just make sure you keep a copy of the grub and lilo conf files
before you wipe it...

There have also been problems with some versions of linux, altering
partition tables so that Windows stops recognising itself. I'm sure it's
fixed in modern releases, but if not, there's web page here that might be
useful:
http://users.tkk.fi/~tkarvine/linux-windows-dual-boot-resizing-ntfs.html


> The reason I am thinking of using Mandriva is because my early experience
> of diskdrake
> suggests that is the easiest way of resizing and partitioning. Once I've
> got the drive
> repartitioned I'll swap to Debian (how can anybody live without apt?).

I know... mind, I prefer slackware - I find it far easier to compile
software on it (don't ask me why... it just seems to work better), in
which case you can always install slapt-get - it's fantastic. Like the
best of Debian and Slackware all rolled into one. Mind, for desktops I
generally use Vector Linux, which has slapt-get already installed. And
what's more, it uses icewm (+ a few very useful tweaks) as its default wm,
so runs just as smoothly on a 400mhz / 64 meg ram... yeah, I'll shut up
now :D


> Defrag? Do I really, really have to? I can choose a machine with 70% free
> space. I started
> defragging one machine this morning and it looked as though it was going
> to take all day.
> How long should defrag take on a 50 gig hard drive with 30% usage? Do I
> really, really have to?

Ummm... yes, please do. If I remember correctly (and I might not - long
time since I used it), Diskdrake tells you where it thinks the data stops
on your disk. If not, qtparted on knoppix certainly does. So, if you have
fragments all through the disk, it won't let you resize. That said, it's
best not to rely on that feature too much, and I'm not sure whether that
feature works at all on NTFS.

As for the time taken, people are right about M$'s WinXP defrag utility -
it's naff. The version for '98 was far far better. In fact, I don't think
it even works the same... anyway, if you fancy trying something different,
there's a good list here:
http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/defragmentation.shtml

Hope that helps!

Matt