3.1 If you have only one IDE hard disk
- First of all, I would suggest you to install a fresh copy of Windows NT 4.0 on your hard disk. I suppose that you already made a backup of your important data, so the NT installation shouldn't be a problem. During the NT installation, setup is not going to ask you where to place NT's boot loader, so it would be placed into the MBR (Master Boot Record) of your hard disk. But, there is a possibility for a previous content of the MBR to remain within the MBR (especially any previous Lilo), so I would suggest you (before installation of NT) to boot the computer with a DOS floppy diskette having DOS version of FDISK. At the prompt a:\ just enter the command: fdisk /mbr and restart the computer again (without that floppy).
- After you have successfully installed your NT, you will see that it uses the whole hard disk or a specific partition of the hard disk (depending on what you decided during the setup process). So, it is advisable to 'shrink' the partition where NT resides in order to make some free space on the disk. Onto that free space you will install your Linux. After you have your NT configured and running, you have to boot your computer using a floppy diskette with Partition Magic utility by Power Quest. It is a graphical tool able to see all partitions on all hard disks you have. The best thing is that you can make some changes with your partitions but not to destroy your existing data. One of the available changes is to make your existing partition(s) smaller, so to get some free space on the disk(s) for other purposes. Although you are advised to make a backup before you make any changes to the partitions, I usually practice to 'shrink' NT's partition(s) before I install anything else onto this NT (so, if needed, a repetitive NT re-installation wouldn't be a problem). Well, Partition Magic (or any other similar utility you are familiar with) will shrink your NT's partition (either NTFS or FAT) to a smaller measure and place it to either the beginning or to the end of the previous measure. It means that you may choose to have your 'shrinked' NT partition at the beginning or at the end of your disk (I usually choose NT to be at the beginning, so the ending part of the disk will become a 'free space'). After the 'shrinking' is finished, you may re-boot your NT in order to check the new situation: you may use Windows Explorer or Disk Administrator for that.
- As it was said in Introduction, it might not be needed always to use such tools like Partition Magic. It is better to say that this tool is of a great value in all those cases you have been running Windows NT for a long time, so you don't want to start from 'scratch'. For example, you are fully satisfied with your beloved NT and related applications. You are not likely to kill NT, but you have recognized that you have enough unused space on NT's partition(s) (i.e. NT's partition(s) might look not much populated). That case, Partition Magic is your choice. But, if you do start from the beginning, or you don't mind re-formatting the disk, it might be suitable to get a blank floppy diskette, make it to be DOS bootable and copy two DOS tools on it: FDISK and FORMAT. So, restart your computer with such floppy and at A:\ prompt enter fdisk. There you'll find several options that allow re-partition of your hard disk(s). Now you could make a part of the disk a FAT partition (where you'll later install your beloved NT). The rest of space you'd better leave alone (i.e. do not attempt making Linux partition(s) right now, using DOS's version of FDISK). If you really want to make Linux-type partitions now, you should look after Linux version of FDISK.
- So far so good. Next step is to install your Linux. Case you are familiar with RedHat distribution (I hope with other distros is the same or similar), you start by putting your installation CD in the drive and re-boot the computer). Well, when you are about to choose what type of installation it will be (Gnome or KDE Workstation, Custom, etc.) you may choose whatever you planned before, but I would suggest to install a Workstation
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