not entirely new. but new to dual boot.

[toyarmy]

so, i just built a new pc. and id like to run a dual boot < win xp/feisty fawn > on it.
the specs are 250gb sata hard drive, 2gb ram, 3600+ amd athlon 64 x2 processor.

i got impatient, and put xp on a 30,000mb partition.
i primarily need xp for photoshop. and probably any other randomness i decide i want.

i mainly want to make sure i am able to share photos and music between linux and windows. while leaving enough space for each os so that i can install whatever apps i deem neccessary.

like i said, i just installed xp, so theres nothing vital on the hd yet, so if for whatever reason that partition size isnt good for xp, just let me know and ill start over.

but yes, if someone could lead me in the right direction from here.

thank you.

[eriefisher]

Re: not entirely new. but new to dual boot.

When you load Linux it will see that there is a windows installation and ask you about it. You will be asked where to put grub(MBR). Otherwise it just install in the free space you have or you can create you own partitions.

As for sharing files, Kubuntu can read NTFS no problem. There are also some apps to allow you to write as well.

There are also some third party apps for windows to allow it to read ext2 and 3 file systems.

The other choice would be to create a fat32 partition where both Linux and windows can read and write to it.

Good luck, erie

[toyarmy]

Re: not entirely new. but new to dual boot.

what would be the easiest most sensible approach? making a fat32 partition? or just letting everything hang out in the windows partition?

i know fat32 is larger, but how much larger?

[eriefisher]

Re: not entirely new. but new to dual boot.

I use a small Fat32 partition to share with windows. Honestly, I don't use it very often and it's only 1gb. Really I only use windows these days for a couple of apps that the wife wants. The fat partition comes in handy if your system fails and need to transfer files for recovery or something. It all depends on what you want to do with the machine and what apps you use

[toyarmy]

Re: not entirely new. but new to dual boot.

like i said, i mainly use it for photo editing, beyond that its generic stuff like music, internet, and random stuff that catches my attention.

should i allocate more space for windows, or linux.

im playing with 250 gb here, but the majority will get filled with photos, so id like to be able to access them with both os', but at the very least with windows.

[eriefisher]

Re: not entirely new. but new to dual boot.

My suggestion:

100g-Windows-plenty of disc for windows and storage
50g-Fat32-to share files for both OS's
10g-/-root file system
1g-/swap
/home on the rest-storage for personal files

I would also look into the apps mentioned earlier for cross read and write

[bodiless]

Re: not entirely new. but new to dual boot.

All of the suggestions here are just fine and it is really a matter of taste and personal needs how you are going to partition your disk. There are also many nice partitioning scheme examples on the net, just Google around to find some of them.

What I did: One year ago, when I just started dual booting, I used all of these tools to read write from windows to linux and vise versa. This was just because I was afraid of using linux and because my head was brainwashed after using so many years only windows. After some time, I started feeling comfortable with linux, so I switched to using a fat32 partition in between. A small one at the beginning because I wanted my data to be on the ntfs partition (brainwash again!), but later a really large one. This is my latest scheme: I have a 180GB hard disk, 30GB goes for Win apps, 25 for Linux apps and 125GB for fat32 where I keep all my files and data so that I can access them from both OS without having to move them around all the time. But to be honest, as time flies by, I realize more and more that there isn't much I can't do with linux. So I am seriously thinking to move all my files and data into a proper ext3 /home partition and keep a very small fat32 area just the case I need something I can't do in linux (which i actually doubt).

For example, you mention that you want to edit pictured with photoshop. Have you tried out the GIMP Image Editor? It's like photoshop, even better I could say.

Best luck to whatever you choose

[toyarmy]

Re: not entirely new. but new to dual boot.

For example, you mention that you want to edit pictured with photoshop. Have you tried out the GIMP Image Editor? It's like photoshop, even better I could say.

Best luck to whatever you choose

thank you.
yes, i have used the gimp. and its an awesome program, esspecially considering its free!!!

but i find photoshop to be a lot more versatile < it could be brainwashing > for what i need.