I'm using Linux (ThizLinux 7.0) for the first time, it's already installed on a single (20GB) HD, but I'd like to install Windows XP Pro on the same HD. I don't have any experience of setting up a dual-boot system, and badly need some basic guidelines, e.g. do I need any additional software ? I have Partition Magic already. Do I need to uninstall Linux first, or can I create a partition for XP from within Linux ? Thanks.

My situation was the reverse. I have and XP box on which I added Red Hat Linux 7.3 I'm sure you can easily add Win XP over Linux by formatting/partitioning your HDD. But my tried and successful way was XP first, Linux second... so if ya dont care if you have to re install Linux... start fresh and install XP then linux. Use LILO or the GRUB loader that comes built into Linux as your boot manager... it's pretty easy to configure and use.

Step1: Install WinXP Step2: Install Linux Step3(duaring step2): Install LInuxLOader on MBR; Thats all!

the problem is XP! By default, windows XP overwrites the master bootrecord (which contains the data to be able to boot your OS) and installs it's own bootmanager. It adds existing windowsinstallations to that menu, but no other OS. So when you would resize your linuxparition, and install windows XP, you would not be able to boot linux anymore, unless you use a bootdisk, which works extremely slow! 1 way around this is to boot linux with a bootdisk and re-write lilo to the MBR. (you'll need to add an option to boot windows.) Another thing, I once resized the linuxpartition that I had (1 big partition, containing the whole filesystem) with partition magic, and couldn't boot linux again (had probably somthing to do with /etc/fstab, but I didn't know that at that time...) So, to go the easy way, do as XMen says, Wipe your harddisk make a partition for windows install windows install linux (partitioning should be done during install in most cases) that's easy, and you'll probably spare yourself a headague trying to repair linux.... Johan

Thanks for all the advice, I'll install XP first as you recommend. Before I do that, what's the Linux equivalent to the fdisk command ??

i think fdisk exists in linux too. Redhat has diskdruid, but I don't know if thizlinux has it.

use fdisk to make the partitions. mail me if U want to know the details.