Can I Partition my drive for XP OS

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

The only os i have currently is opensuse 11.1
I am wondering if I can partition my drive to
install XP on. My computer was originally running
XP and I deleted its partition when instaling
suse.

any help would be much appreciated.

#2

What you can do depends on how the disk is partitioned now. In openSUSE in a terminal as root do:

fdisk -lu

Post the output back here and we can take a look at what your options are.

#3

andrew@linux-xmr8:~> fdisk -lu

Program ‘fdisk’ is present in package ‘util-linux’, which is installed on your system.

Absolute path to ‘fdisk’ is ‘/sbin/fdisk’, so it might be intended to be run only by user with superuser privileges (eg. root).

bash: fdisk: command not found
andrew@linux-xmr8:~>

#4

Dude you need to go su in your terminal first

#5

linux-xmr8:/home/andrew # fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders, total 234441648 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xda6ada6a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 4209029 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 * 4209030 46154744 20972857+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 46154745 234436544 94140900 83 Linux

#6

XP needs to be installed on a “primary” partition on the first disk. Since your disk is the only one is the machine, and you currently are using three primaries, you can add one more (the limit is four). Here is what you need to do:

  1. Download/burn a LiveCD. It can be openSUSE, Knoppix, Partedmagic, etc.
  2. Boot from the LiveCD and use the YaST Partitioner or gparted to downsize sda3 to make room for XP. Do not create a new partition.
  3. Boot the XP install CD and use it to create a 4th partition in the unused space, then do the install.
  4. When you reboot, you will boot into XP. Verify the install.
  5. Reboot with the LiveCD, get into a terminal, and do:
su -
sfdisk -A2 /dev/sda
  1. Reboot the machine after removing the LiveCD. You will see the openSUSE menu again. Boot openSUSE.
  2. In openSUSE, press Alt-F2 and type:
kdesu kwrite /boot/grub/menu.lst  (KDE)
gnomesu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst (Gnome)
  1. Add the following to the file, making sure there is a blank line before and after:

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows XP
   rootnoverify (hd0,0)
   chainloader +1
  1. Reboot. You should see the openSUSE menu with a selection for booting XP.

That’s it.

#7

YaST Partitioner did not work for me but I used gparted to downsize sda3 to make room for XP and did not create a new partition.

I booted my XP cd and it does not get to the setup, it recognizes no hard disks on my computer,

#8

Try to make room for XP at the beginning of the disk (i.e. /dev/sda1).

I think that the installation process is far more easy if Windows is convinced to be the only OS present on the disk.

Of course at the end of the installation your bootloader will be wipe out (LILO if put on the MBR surely, grub I don’t know), but it’s easy to restore it (use a live cd/USB stick/floppy boot).

Bye, bye.

#9

In regard to post immediately above, that would require moving the 3 existing partitions - not necessary.

Re XP not seeing the disk: Are you using an original release XP CD? It is 99% probable that the error is because the CD does not have the needed disk driver (this is a driver for the disk controller in the chipset, not the physical disk itself). When you run XP setup, you’ll see a message saying to press F6 to add a driver, and a few moments later you will be prompted to insert a floppy with the driver on it. Obviously, this requires that your machine have a floppy drive. Second, that you (a) get a newer version of the XP install CD that includes Service Pack 1 (this doesn’t guarantee that it will have the driver, but there is a definite possiblity that it will) or Service Pack 2 (almost certain the driver will be in SP2). Or (b) that you find the driver on the web, download it, copy it to a floppy. You may find the driver on the machine manufacturer’s support site. If not, try the motherboard manufacturer’s site, search under model number; you can usually get the mobo info from doing this command as root in a terminal:

hwinfo --bios

You may also be able to find the driver with Google. But you must give XP setup the driver or it will not be able to install.