PC no3: VL install problems

[UserError]

Hi,
I'm trying to install VL32bit on a PC which, already dual boots XP/Ubuntu 11

I'd like to overwrite or remove Ubuntu & also not lose XP.
Windows shows 2 disks, 80gb & 10gb (both IDE physical HDDs, Master & Cable Select respectively on 80 connector cable) as 74gb NTFS & 10gb unallocated except for a 2gb fat32 /home partition
GParted shows /dev/sda1 ntfs, mount point /host and the 10gb formatted to ext3 partitions for VL - root, swap & home.  

There does not appear to be any ext partition to hold Ubuntu & I am worried about XP and all the other software getting wiped.
I have read that if it is installed from WUBI, it lives on the Windows partition & there is indeed a Ubuntu folder there, but not a lot in them.  I may have installed it from WUBI as I had trouble with the DVD drive, but that was a while ago & I can't remember as I have tried so much on several PCs

I have just tried installing VL on a separate 10gb HDD with the main one disconnected & that seems to have installed, but I now need to get the bootloader to include VL and still to delete Ubuntu.

PC is a Fujitsu Celsius R610 dual xeon 2.8ghz, 32bit, Tyan 2665 motherboard, 2gb RAM

I would appreciate any help or direction to helpful articles etc.
Many thanks
Jonathan

[overthere]

GParted shows /dev/sda1 ntfs, mount point /host and the 10gb formatted to ext3 partitions for VL - root, swap & home.

if you remove the 10 gig does windows boot normally.

looks like you reformatted the 10 gig for VL with root, swap, home so ubuntu is already gone if it were installed to the 10 gig.

if you set the 10 gigs jumpers to master to install with out the 80 gig you may want to adjust them, or put it on the second cable.

you may be able to use the computers boot menu to boot the second drive.

Edit: Have not used the ubuntu windows installer but you may find an uninstaller in the ubuntu folder, here is a link that may shed light.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/211088/how-to-uninstall-ubuntu-installed-through-the-windows-installer

[UserError]

Thanks for your help.

if you remove the 10 gig does windows boot normally.

Yes - dual boot option with Ubuntu still here.  My research has led me to believe that the Windows installer deviates from the Linux norm & makes space within the Windows filesystem, but on very uncertain ground here.

looks like you reformatted the 10 gig for VL with root, swap, home so Ubuntu is already gone if it were installed to the 10 gig.

I formatted the 10gb for VL it was new to this PC for this purpose  - was an empty old drive from my parts box.

Ubuntu -followed your link & am dealing with that - the Windows installer has an uninstaller (although this is uninstall-wubi.exe rather than uninstall Ubuntu, but when clicked offers to uninstall Ubuntu, which I have now done & it boots straight into XP ok - with the 10gb disconnected

if you set the 10 gigs jumpers to master to install with out the 80 gig you may want to adjust them

Don't quite understand this.  I've just tried booting with the 80gb as Master & the 10gb as slave & it can't find an OS.  If I boot without the 80gb & the 10gb as Master, how will that help as I need to include the 80gb disk?

It'd be good to get the 2 disks on different IDE cables if they'll physically reach, as I like to have my swap file on a different disk.

Are you saying put the 10gb as Master on IDE1 & the 80gb on IDE2 as Secondary Master or Cable Select? or as Slave/CS also on IDE1?  Or have I just got to try all the permutations with a shedload of powering up & down?

Just put the 10gb as Master on IDE1 & the 80gb on IDE2 as Cable Select then Secondary Master but both give "no OS found"
Cheers
J

[overthere]

No, sorry..thought you had installed VL to the 10 gig without the 80 gig in, thus you would have jumpered it master to install. as such would have to put second master(10gig)on second cable was the thought and attempt boot from the boot menu, not a big help here sorry

good that the uninstall worked so you have the 80 gig as primary master with only xp and have regained the space.

you can now put the 10 gig as slave or as master on the second cable. if you have not yet installed VL then perhaps someone with more experience will give you some help with the dual boot. I dual boot on the same drive so the linux boot loader auto recognized win, not sur on the second drive but would guess you add the boot loader to the / rather than mbr but as I said wait or ask for help as I do not want to steer you in the wrong direction.

cheers

[overthere]

one option would be to put the 80 gig with winxp as master on the second cable and put the 10gig as the primary  master on the first cable. then install linux to the partitions you set up and install grub to the mbr of the 10 gig. this should boot linux and if all goes well an option to boot xp, if xp is not on the boot menu it likely can be added and it should not effect your xp install or win boot loader. but I have not done it so educated guess if you will.

[UserError]

Thanks.
I'll try installing VL with the 10gb on either IDE 1 or 2 as you mentioned.  The cable for IDE2 won't reach the HD bays so it's a bit of a bodge to get the disk up where the DVD drive is.

I would rather have both OS's on the 80gb disk, but am worried about overwriting XP.  There's over 30gb space there & the 10gb is a bit small

There's also a 74gb SCSI in there, sidelined because I couldn't get the Windows install to recognise it (even though it had XP on it previously....)  Do you know how VL gets on with SCSI drives?
TIA

[overthere]

Installing to the 80 gig should be easy. My dual boot install went so well I was actually shocked, I had the same fear you do. I think I used gparted to resize and create a partition for vector ( remember to leave some free space for win). I installed via the install cd and added the boot loader to the mbr ( a guess as my first dual boot ). when I rebooted it wanted to auto boot linux with a time out and I could choose win, tui with a click. one can add additional os to the list but I have had no call to do so. or change the auto boot from linux to win again no call to do so personally yet.

the overwrite you fear would be caused by you not correctly resizing the free space or not installing to the correct partition. the overwrite of the win bootloader is actually a good thing if you want to add more linux later apparently.

 VL is not going to do anything but ask a few questions and can not overwrite anything unless to tell the installer or partition software to do so. fear not, the worst that can happen is you have to install some form of os to a computer for use. windows is not THAT good and files of importance should always have a back up somewhere.

I suspect an scsi drive will work but although I have an old scsi drive and cable I do not have a board with an scsi port so guessing.

 the option I suggested earlier was with the hope it would not effect windows at all but add win to the linux bootloader and get you using vector. to me it is really about where the boot loader should be installed and how to tweak for two drives. I will test that theory when I get a spare drive to try it. Although I did the dual boot I have only booted xp twice to see if it worked and it is more a waste of space. I like having working copy though and also have win98 and linux on another old laptop although it is not dual boot but 98/live-persist.Anyway

there appear to be several ways to multiboot and no really clear instruction on any, but you should be as shocked as I how easy it is to dual boot XP/VL on the same drive. post how it goes.

cheers

[overthere]

Here is a vid stretchedthin made using gparted to resize an ntfs partition and create a new partition for installing VL. you may not need the swap partition if you have lots of ram. this is gparted from the VL installer but you can use gparted from a live cd or even puppy live has gparted which will allow you to do the same thing. in this case you can just continue on to install after creating your new partitions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sls8OINNGPQ

additional vids are available at www.opensourcebistro.com