hello hello. i just got my hands on a copy of redhat 8.0 through the local book store and i am interested in dual booting with win xp, it came in "redhat linux 8.0 bible", and i am a newbie at any os that is non mircocrap, but before i start i want to make sure i won't screw my self over by erasing my cur os winxp (the stuff on it accually), so i read the install section, and it talks about DISK PARTITIONS, now i know that winxp doesn't allow dynamic partitions, but in the book it talks about a proogie called disk druid for partitioning our disk during installation, so my question is: will my winxp c:\ drive(i only have one, 40 gb) allow partitions for the ability to dual boot with another os? this may be stupid but better stupid that screwed, thanks for any anwsers. ~NULLandVOID~

There shouldn't be ANY problem using dual boor. There are several solutions. 1) Set a lilo in the MBR (bootmenu) but some claim that it is unsafe (never had problems with it so far) 2) Make a bootdisk (actually that's the best solution) 3) Use a bootmanager (but why buy one I f lilo does the job ?) 4) Put a copy of your kernel on your C-drive .. then install (sorry forgot the name but I'm sure some else will know this) a use your XP boot menu to make a choice between your XP and Linux. Using disk druid shouldn't be a problem, but even better would be to use the Disk Administrator from XP to divide the partition, and then have linux formatted them.

Being new to linux I would advise that you do not let linux overwrite the master boot record. You should boot with a boot disk. As far as the partitions go, if it's all allocated to WinXP right now then you would need software like partition magic to move stuff around. Even that can screw up your partitions. I've never used Disk Administrator though so maybe that can do it too? I don't think disk druid can.

I dual boot Windows XP and Linux. From where you are, your biggest task is to get a free partition to install Linux on. If you don't want to add a new hard drive (the best way), you need to partition your drive without destroying your data. I use PowerQuest Drive Image to backup my C drive. Then I restore from the backup, selecting "Resize source partition", and deleting the original C partition. This works as long as you have a place to write the backup, and you can't write it on the C drive. Partition Magic avoids this problem by resizing the partition without destroying the data, but you lose everything if it fails, so you should still have all important data backed up. Once you have Windows XP on you C drive and enough free space for Linux, you can install Redhat 8.0 from the CDs. I chose GRUB as the boot manager, in the MBR, and chose a / partition and a /boot partition. I used Disk Druid, but you might want automatic partitioning. After installation, when you boot, a GRUB screen is displayed, with choices for Linux and DOS. To boot Windows XP you select DOS.

I have the same book "Red Hat Linux 8 Bible" and I wonder what the difference is between Red Hat 8 personal and the CDs that come on "Red Hat Linux 8 Bible” The bible edition comes with what appear to be two instillation CDs and one documentation CD. So am I getting less then I would get if I got personal besides the little book red hat gives with the boxed version?