Re: Problems partioning XP disk

[Tom <tb.31112.nospam@comcast.net>]

On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 08:05:58PM -0500, Eric Dickner wrote:
> What do we do for a "lossless" XP install?

In the world of 'pooters, there's what you *can* do, and what you 
*should* do.  What you *should* do is called a "best practice."

Here's what you *should* do:

*Back up your data.
*Boot from the Windows XP CD.
*Delete whatever is the first partition on the first HDD.
*Create 1 partition for Windows and leave space for Linux, unless you 
are going to install Linux on a 2nd HDD.
*Install Windows XP on the first partition of the first HDD.
*Install Debian wherever.

You can jump through all kinds of hoops messing with resizing 
partitions, messing with crap, &c., or you can just bite the bullet.

Note that "Windows requires the first partition of the first HDD" is not 
an absolute rule, it's only a concession to the reality that things are 
much simpler if you let it think it owns the world.