I have windows xp installed on a raid drive, that I want to install opensuse on, but it says that i need a /boot partition to boot from RAID. I have no unpartitioned harddrive space available, and I need to keep the windows installation, because I need it for school, and there is too much data to back up.
I can set all other install parameters, but I can´t format C: , and when I try to install (I set the windows partition to /) anyway it can´t write data, and sends me back to the preinstall menu (where I can choose to boot the installed os, or power off the computer).
Could someone tell me how to install it without having to format?
P.S. I have hardware RAID, Q6600 CPU and 3,25 GB of RAM (4GB but it only counts this much)
You need to create a few partitions for opensuse to use.
You cant install opensuse on an ntfs partition, which is the same partition as windows.
Since you have said you have no unpartitioned space available, then it is impossible to install any linux distribution.
Your only option is to resize your windows partition, but i would highly recommend you backup all your data before any attempt is made to do this.
Infact i would also recommend that you backup your data before trying any linux os. I do realise you initially said you cant but it would be very wise to do so.
Hardware raid, what raid controller do you have?
I have a Intel ICH8R\ICH9R SATA RAID controller. I´m going to backup the more important stuff, and resize the partition later. Would 40 GB be enough for 11.0? (It was for 9.3 on my old computer)
And can I install it on a single partition (just /), or do /home and such need to be different? (I know that swap does)
EDIT: And does /boot need to be at the start of the drive?
Nevermind, I did a RAID reset when windows started crashing on boot again, and got everything installed ok.