[was: (no subject)] linux installation on a win98 box
On Fri, 20 Sep 2002 SyLamypie@aol.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Sorry to bother you for a what may be a silly question?
There are no silly questions, there are however silly answers ;-)
> Can it be installed onto a Windows 98 PC
Yes. You need to install it on a separate partion however, if your win98
partition occupies whole disk space, you need to 'shrink' windows
partition (use Partition Magic or freeware program fips - you can it find
in debian/tools directory on your debian mirror).
> how does Debian affect the
> current O/S? I am a bit cautious to installing a new O/S (Debian) to find out
> that I cannot use
> Windows 98 anymore. Is it possible that I can run Windows 98 as normal, and
> then start Debian once the initial O/S has loaded??
It's rather not possible to boot debian from windows session. But debian
comes with a bootloader which will allow you to choose OS at boottime.
> I am only using this for further UNIX development at home, rather at work,
> but am
> uneasy about installing it, if it means I lose my Windows O/S.
You won't loose your windows if you are cautious enough:
* prepare a windows bootdisk with fdisk on it,
* prepare a linux bootdisk from debian installer,
* read what installer says and DON'T REMOVE OR FORMAT YOUR WINDOWS
PARTITION (you can't do that by accident, just be carefull),
* if anything goes wrong and you can't boot windows, just restore MBR
(boot from windows diskette and run 'fdisk /mbr'), that will make your
windows bootable again,
* if you need further help, write us.
Regards,
Adam
PS.: When submitting to a list, always add a short description of your
problem to the subject of your message.
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