Gentoo and XP - Dual boot setup - From scratch

[hedgehog703]

I know there ARE lots of articles online about dual booting, but I cannot find one that answers a few simple questions. Any help would be appreciated and I will post the step by step process so that it can be added to faq later.

I want to install Gentoo Linux and Windows XP on my laptop on one hard drive.
1. What is the BEST way to partition my disk? I need one 20GB for windows, 100MB for /boot, 512MB for swap and the rest for /.
2. I would like to use grub, and I know how to configure grub to point the the proper partitions, but I don't know wether to install grub in MBR or /dev/hdaX.
3. Which do I install first? XP or Gentoo?

(I have a Dell D600 by the way.)

[Ateo]

Have you read this? --> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-install.xml

That doc is probably the best way to install. Period. It explains, in detail, how to partition and set up grub for dual boot. In fact, it pretty much holds your hand during a Gentoo install.

As far as which to install first.. Hmm. Since Windows can be a pain in the ass with dual booting, I'd do that first.

[grepcomputers]

I dual boot WinXP and Gentoo on my desktop.

I'd install WinXP first because if you install it second it will try to take over the boot sector. Of course, all you have to do is install grub again using the gentoo live CD.

How large is your laptop drive?

~20-30GB windows...depends on what you are doing with it, and where most of your data is going to be stored (ie, media files and such) - if you want to access them both from windows and linux you are probably going to want to store them on the windows partition (linux can read NTFS...windows cannot really read linux partitions too well...although there are some solutions out there now) If you are doing very little with windows you could get away with 15GB probably...

You do *not* need 100MB for boot unless you are using a *lot* of different kernels and/or your kernels are abnormally large (really abnormally) - my kernel is only ~900KB. I use 32MB for boot and I am not even using half of it...in fact, I'm only using 2.1MB of it...

512MB for swap sounds reasonable. I use 1GB...and I have 1GB RAM...but that is way overkill.

I like to create seperate partitions for / , /home and /var.
A seperate partition for /var was recommended to me by a friend when he had a process go nuts and start logging like mad and it filled up his hard drive.
I use 20GB for / - and I've used 10GB of it - however, I have UT, UT2K and Q3A installed.
having a seperate /home directory is nice if you decide to reinstall linux - you can blow away /, /boot and /var while keeping all your personal/important data a settings.

I would install WinXP on the first partition, gentoo on the remaining, and stick grub on the MBR...at least, that's essentially what I do and it works very well for me.

cheers...
...grep

EDIT: I second reading the gentoo install manual. it is *great* and it really helped me install gentoo...

[plate]

Try searching for "dual boot gentoo windows partition" here in the forums alone, and choose from one of over 200 threads reiterating the same things over and over again...