To openSUSE community.
I’m just a bit confused at the moment with the initial set up of openSUSE 11.
I have previously dual booted other linux distros without any major difficulties however openSUSE has me stumped.
Basically I have 2 hard drives. A 320GB SATA hard drive and a 500 GB SATA hard drive.
The 320GB hard drive is my master and the 500GB is the slave.
On the 320GB hard drive I have a 120GB XP partition and the rest is unallocated space.
On the 500GB partition the space is totally taken up by Vista x64 and another partition I use for storing large files etc.
Anyhow… When I went to install openSUSE 11 x64 I selected all my basic configuration options and then created a custom partitioning scheme. I created an 80GB ext3 partition on my 320GB hard drive and a 2GB swap partition.
Unfortunately when I’m about to install it tells me that all other partitions will be formatted, and asks if I would like to continue.
I most definitely don’t want to format XP or Vista as I have a lot on both of them.
Is there anyway I can install openSUSE without formatting my windows partitions?
I saw there was an option where you could follow automatic configuration but I fear it will also format my partitions.
Forgive me for this question as you must see hundreds like this.
In fact no formatting takes place until after SUSE gives a install summary, the partitions to be formatted will be in RED.
If you just make sure you select ‘do not format’ in the partitioner for XP and Vista and any other partitions you want to keep, it will be fine.
You need to visit each partition with the partitioner anyway, so you can set mount points for all your partitions, you will be able to make sure they are set to do not format then.
Thanks caf4926 for your prompt reply.
As soon as I try to start initiating install the warning comes up that partitions may be formatted.
I will check in the partition report where you said that only the partitions marked in red will be formatted.
Something I note about your setup is that you have both drives using windows.
If it were me I would have the XP drive set first to boot in BIOS and install Grub bootloader to the MBR of that drive, XP is easier to fix than Vista should you have any issues.
You must check the Booting section in the install summary to make sure only MBR is checked in the advanced tab, and it is going to the correct drive (probably sda) but you will be able to note how SUSE identifies each drive in the partitoner.
Don’t expect either windows to boot once the install is done. But don’t panic. Report back here if they don’t. They may work, just have to wait and see. But we can get them working!
Thanks for your help again.
I just followed the automatic configuration this time and checked that everything was alright.
It worked and hoorah XP and Vista both work.
Thanks for your help.