Anyone know how to do this?

I already have Windows XP and Mandrake Linux loaded on one HD. I have some extra non-partitioned space left (10gb) and would like to install RedHat 8.0 server configuration. But all Linux's seem to use the same partitions ie "/" and "/swap". Installing on a second hard drive would be easy, but on the same one I expect problems. Any ideas?

Well, you need to install redhat, but first backup the /etc/lilo.conf from your mandrake install.


The / thing will not effect one or the other, as you will be installing / as a mount point for redhat on this partition or hard drive (seperate hard drives are easier.) than anything else. Let redhat do the defaults, then change them how you need. You will see how you want it. MAKE SURE IT DOES NOT FORMAT ANY CURRENT LINUX OR WINDOWS PARTITIONS, as it will rm -rf all of your system after you pick the packages to install. Also, you can choose how you login with redhat after you get the packages installed. Its where you choose your window manager. I would go with command line, and not with gui, because it could dye hard on you. Also, make a boot disk, you may need it later when you start editing /etc/lilo.conf



You will need to make a decision, will mandrakes bootloader be the one I want, or is redhats. I personally like redhats lilo.conf over mandrakes, but it's up to you.


there is more on this at www.linuxdoc.org

You can then take the lilo.conf you used in mandrake, and use that as a guide for the redhat lilo.conf. You would want to do that, at least for the windows side. If you mess up, you can recover with the boot disk, or rh has a boot disk on the cd.

Thanks, I always boot linux with a boot disk anyway. XP is my main OS, the Linux's are for learning. I'll look up linuxdoc.

You can get another hard drive for under $50.

Take your existing hd out of the system and put it on the shelf (the safest place). Install RH 8.0 on the new hd with a boot loader like grub.

Reinstall the second drive(as secondary), modify your grub.conf to add your other boot options to boot everything else.

Unless you really don't value what's on your current drive I wouldn't mess with it. 10GB and $50 isn't worth the trouble of having to reload everything you might lose.

Removable hard drives!


If you are just going to do that, they have cases for swapping ide hard drives out, they are like 15 bucks, well worth the money.

Come to think of it I have an 8gb 2nd HD sitting in my backup PC with only Mandrake 7.2 on it. I'll reformat that and use it.