I want to dual boot my PC , I have the windows XP CD Rom and product number
, a copy of Linux on CD Rom , do I need Partition Magic to partition the HDD
it is NTSF TIA

"PWB" <pwbutt@googlemail.com> wrote in message
news:ZGNtj.899$ab5.523@newsfe1-win.ntli.net...

Some Linux distros have non-destructive repartitioning built-in.
If so, you will not need PM.

But either way...back up your data first...something could go wrong

"philo" <philo@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:AaadnVXgsIL2NCranZ2dnUVZ_viunZ2d@athenet.net. ..

PWB wrote:

Many newer linux distributions have the ability to shrink a ntfs partition
and make place for themself. Or you can start them in "live-CD" mode and
run a tool like gparted, which (with a nice gui) should provide that
feature as well. Or, just download the gparted liveCD.
Before you attempt to shrink the XP partition, you should disable the
swapfile (temporarily) and then defrag. Sometimes windows deliberately
places nonmoveable system "files" at the end of the partition, and resizing
doesn't work well even though there is enough free space.

"PWB" <pwbutt@googlemail.com> wrote in message
news:YoOtj.4$_65.0@newsfe4-gui.ntli.net...
I am not familiar with that particular distro...
so either ask on a SUSE newsgroup

or better still just boot from your SUSE install media and see if that
option is avail.
If not , simply cancel the install

On 2008-02-17, PWB <pwbutt@googlemail.com> wrote:
You seem to be in the UK, so uk.comp.os.linux would be one place to go for
general Linux-related advice. There's also alt.os.linux.suse ... and even
the opensuse.* newsgroups carried by Novell's own news-server - see
<http://en.opensuse.org/Communicate/Usenet>.

I would expect SuSe to have an installation routine that includes tools
for partitioning your hard disc(s) easily; most 'big' distros do. Linux
does not usually use Microsoft file systems such as NTFS (although it can
read and possibly even write to them if required).

The first step is to use the 'system tools' in your Windows system to clean
up the Windows partition and 'defragment' it so that there is enough
continuous free space for that partition to be made smaller. You will need
to do that as a user with 'supervisor' privileges, of course.

I recommend installing a 'boot manager' in the MBR of your hard disc and
getting that to boot your Windows system properly, before installing any
other OSs. I like "GAG" <http://gag.sourceforge.net/index.html>. You
then install SuSe with it's boot loader (LiLo or Grub, probably) in the
SuSe / or /boot partition not in the MBR (that instruction will make more
sense after you've installed a Linux system), and then configure the boot
manager to boot your SuSe system. That way, you're unlikely to mess up the
ability to start your familiar Windows system no matter what you do with
Linux.

For peace of mind you might like to go to the Microsoft web site and
search for 'how to uninstall Linux'.

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~