Computer Woes II
Well, since I’ve been having issues with my computer and installing WinXP and Linux, I have backed up all my data to CD. It took 6 cds for all my mp3s. then 3 other cds for the rest of my stuff. The hubby wants to backup his stuff, then I’m redoing the hard drive completely! Well, maybe. I have to try one more thing before I scrap it totally, to see if I can boot into Linux. If that doesn’t work, then I will scrap the whole thing. I may end up doing that anyway.
I’m thinking of getting Partition Magic to do the repartitioning and re-formatting. I’ve heard great things about it, so I will take the plunge and use it. Has anyone used the boot loader that comes with it? If so, would you recommend it or some other boot loader?
I’m thinking of just using the Windows bootloader and adding the option to boot Linux with it. That seems the easiest way to go.
I had a hell of a time getting XP and Linux to play nicely as well, however, I ended up using Linux’s bootloader (GRUB) by installing XP first and then Linux, making sure that I named the boot image with Windows XP on it (by default it doesn’t have a name, and thus doesn’t show up on GRUB, which was my problem). The partitioning can be a pain – in my case I have a 20 gig and a 4, and I left some space on the 20 for booting stuff Linux might need, but kept most of my Linux partitions on the 4 (Linux can of course do this automatically for you, but I messed around with it till I got what I wanted; I wonder if Linux might just auto write over XP if you don’t do the partitioning manually?).