OFF-TOPIC: Fedora 7 already installed, can't install XP on empty partition [SOLVED]

[Rick Stevens]

On Mon, 2007-08-13 at 09:45 -0300, André Costa wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> On 8/12/07, Aaron Konstam <akonstam at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> > <snip>
> > >
> > > > If you have to start again this is what to do. Repartition the disk from
> > > > scratch using fdisk from rescue mode . Arrange to install XP first on
> > > > the first partition. Then install Linux and I am sure it will work. I
> > > > have done this many times and with this arrangement things work.
> > >
> > > Cool, thks for confirming that. NTFS will occupy the first 150G, can
> > > this be a problem for grub?
> > It is not a problem for grub
> > >
> > > > But please assign a swap partition. Also when installing Linux use the
> > > > Custom partitioning option.
> > >
> > > Will do that, thks again.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Andre
> 
> Just to keep as a reference so that it can help others, here's what
> happened after all: hiding my Linux partitions didn't fool XP setup
> programs, so I had no choice but deleting my Linux partitions with
> fdisk from the Fedora "rescue disk" boot option and starting all over
> again, this time installing Windows XP first (damn, damn Micro$oft for
> such a lame installation program =/)

It's not lame, it's specifically designed that way.  Microsoft thinks
they own the PC market, therefore they won't play with anything but
MS stuff.  This issue has been around since W98 at least.  They've
known about it, they've gotten thousands of complaints and they choose
not to fix it.

> After that, all went as expected, and Fedora and Windows XP now
> co-exist in peace.

Well, sort of.  Windows will ignore Linux--don't expect it to read or
even acknowledge the presence of Linux partitions.  Linux "plays nice"
however, and will read Windows (VFAT or NTFS) partitions.  In the case
of VFAT, it'll even write to them.  NTFS is writable, but it's still a
bit, uh, "iffy".  I don't do it, but I only have one machine with
Windows on it.

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- Rick Stevens, Principal Engineer             rstevens at internap.com -
- CDN Systems, Internap, Inc.                http://www.internap.com -
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