suse 8.1 installation

Hi , im a noob to linux i have recently obtained a copy of suse 8.1 pro and would like to know how to install from scratch i already have xp pro installed on the hdd but before i format it i would like to know if i have to convert to ntfs before installing linux since im curently fat 32 or do i have to bother at all , will suse do it all for me . I dont even know were to start , i mean do i just insert the disk and away we go or what can anybody guide this noob through the whole prosess from scratch plz ....

 

HI, and welcome to TSG so u say u have winXP and u want to istall SUSE, do u want to keep winxp or erase the disk and have linux by itself, is your winxp running Fat32 or ntfs

 

How big is your hard drive and is xp using the whole thing?
If you want to keep xp,leave it as fat32(you can read/write fat but only read ntfs in linux) and SuSE will ask if you want it to resize the partition to make free space for itself.You just have to decide how much room you need for each OS.
Be sure to defrag and scandisk xp before installing SuSE.And I would recommend turning off Plug and Play in the bios setup.That will help Linux detect your hardware.
lynch

 

The thing is i have 2 comps and i have just put another 80 gig in my main comp that i use as a acs server and now i have a spare 8 gig hdd . I have been itching to try linux for a while now but dont fancy setting up a dual boot , since i have know knowlege of linux what so ever so i thought that now i have a spare drive i would set it up in my other comp with linux on it or maybe i could keep my xp pro on the 40 gig that is already installed and have linux on this 8 gig on the slave but i dont really know much about the whole prosess and how it works , all the forums ive read about installing linux have put me of the dual boot idea i have seen somewere that if linux is not installed on the first 9 gig of the drive it will not work so that started to put me right of lol. So then i thought maybe i could just try linux on the 8 gig drive to see what all the fuss is about but if its possible to have it running on a slave hdd with dual boot without alot of messing around then im all for it but as i mentioned before i know pritty much nothing about linux and just as much about dual booting , i dont even know how to start up the installing prosess for linux i mean do i just tell bios to boot from cd rom then im away or do i have to format the drive first then what , anyways ideas would be great . thx ... one last thing i have redhat 8 and suse 8.1 but i liked the sound of suse any recomendations .

p.s soz about the book

 

No replys eh , damn it , looks like im going solo on this one then !

If anybody knows if i have to remove xp pro from my hdd before i start an install or can i leave it on there and format it with the suse install is all i need to know before this weekend , cause im gonna go for it then .

thx and l8trs.

 

Sorry I misunderstood You dont need to format or uninstall XP:just start the SuSE installation.It'll see your windows install and ask if you want to keep it or delete the partition and use the entire drive for Linux.Just choose to use entire drive.
Good luck.
lynch

 

Thx anyways dude , se ya .