Hey I have just finished partitioning my hardrive. Its set to local disk f, and when i click on it in my computer (in drive c) it is empty. I want to install a version of linux to it, how do i do this? When i load the pc i come up with 2 options windows xp home edition or something along the linies of windows xp recovery boot. Thanx
The short version to Linux would be to pick a fairly user-friendly distro of Linux, like Mandrake or Suse, although the guys around here really dig Mandriva. I haven't really used Linux all that much, so you might want to browse our Linux section of the forums for Linux stuffs. Basically, you should be able to download and then burn to a CD the .iso files of the Linux distro of your choice. Assuming you're shutting down your computer correctly, it sounds like XP is simply giving you a choice in case you're running into trouble. You can disable it in Windows like this: Right-click 'My Computer'-->Properties. Go to the Advanced tab. Go to the Startup and Recovery section and hit the Setting's button. Uncheck the first option, "Time to display list of operating systems" or just change the corresponding number to 0. Hit okay to save and exit the box. If you need options like this for some reason, you can still call them up by hitting 'F8' at boot up right before the XP loading screen starts.
Hey Ok, thanx for the info. I just have one more question. How do i install linux onto my other patition. Thanx
You boot with your Linux disc and go through the installer. With Mandriva, choose the partition to install it to, and choose ReisferFS journalling, or Ext3 as a file system. ReisferFS is generally faster, but Ext3 is more developed and used for servers a lot of the itme. Either way you'll be ok. You can't run the installer from Windows. Also, don't be tempted to use the option to use existing space on the drive. Always use a fresh partition and reformat it in the installer with an advanced linux FS like I mentioned above.
