linux replacing XP

i sometimes want to have a dual boot with my current win2000(currently have C: primary, D: logical, both NTFS) at first i try to do it with XP, but during installation, it sucks cuz of some disc problem. It leaves my HD (when i view with Part.Magic) this:

Disk ||| partition ||| type ||| size MB ||| UsedMB

1 ||| C: Disk1 ||| NTFS ||| 9546 ||| 3281
1 ||| *. ||| Extended ||| 9546 ||| 9546
1 ||| D: Disk2 ||| NTFS ||| 9546 ||| 5527

---------------------------------Continuation-----
unusedMB ||| status ||| Pri/Log

6265 ||| Active ||| Primary
0.0 ||| None ||| Primary
4019 ||| None ||| Logical


but now i changed my mind, i wanted to dual boot it with RedHat 7.3.. what will im gonna do first. Do i have to delete the extended partition? how? pls. help. thanks in advance

make a backup of all important data first. one mistake and you´ll lose your complete harddisk.

if i understand correctly, your setup is this:
C: primary, windows 2000
D: logical, windows XP (the one you want to get rid of)

then:
start the volume manager (sorry, don´t know the correct english name for it). the program in the MS management console that allows you to view and alter partitions.
it is located there where you can also view the system log files and enable/disable services.

delete the logical drive, then delete the extended partition.
now you have unused space on your harddrive that you can install linux to

also don´t forget to remove the windows XP installation from the boot manager of windows 2000 (C:\boot.ini)

sorr, but i cant find the MS management console ...

in XP i get it with right-click on "My PC" and i choose "Verwalten" which is german for "Administration"

in NT4 it was an additional group in the start menu ("Administration") and in Win2000 too i think.

you can also reach it in the control panel, its the icon that you don´t have when running 9x systems. probably it is called "Administration" too, but could be different.

actually i formatted the D : after i've done with the computer management, but still i can see that D : has an extended partition. Is it alright to have that for the incoming linux installation or delete it, but how to delete it? thanks aGAIN

linux can be installed "everywhere". so you can make a logical drive inside this extended partition (/dev/hda5) or delete it too and make a second primary partition (/dev/hda2). it´s your choice and makes no real difference.
only some older versions of the boot-loader LILO cannot handle the kernel if it is on a cylinder > 1024. but this is not dependent on the type of partition.
newer versions can

i have a direct access to our ftp server, can i install linux thru ftp? so i can save from buying CD's . pls. teach me how to do it... thanks your the patience

i think this should work. but since i never used redhat, i can´t say for sure nor tell you how.
SuSE offers this option during installation. i boot from the bootdisks that i download from the server, then i just setup network and tell it to install from the ftp server. no probs.

have u installed SuSE linux alone or with WIn?

alone, with several different win in dual-boot, inside win using vmware, making a 30Meg firewall by taking all necessary files from a running SuSE machine, ...
I am with SuSE since 5.1. before i used slackware (which was hell to setup at this time and thus i learned to love yast for the basic tasks )
why do you ask?

just asking , do u purchase a copy of Partition Magic or just downloaded it or do u have a copy or not.. cuz i downloaded it a demo and it's not actually working.. , cuz i want to adjust my disk partition and if i do it with fdisk, i will lost all my files...

No, sorry, i don´t.
I put several partitions on my harddrives since i found out you have to (re-)install windows every 6 months. so i can always kill the system partition and keep all my data. another advantage: if i want to install linux, i copy all data to the system partition, delete the data partition, make 2 of it and use one for linux.

i think suse came with a similar tool like partition magic. (not for ntfs afaik) if i remember correctly, yast2 can do this. check it out.

if you want a hack: just like linux can read from iso-images like from cd-roms, it can also run on a "virtual" harddrive inside a file so you can even put a 2GB File on your windows partition and install linux into this... not recommended since FAT32 can kill this file at once and the ntfs driver is still in beta stage, but an option if you only want to play with linux.

why do u have to reinstall windows every 6 months? so u have to reinstall too all the programs/softwares u have? lots of work

ok, now that i use XP and don´t install software i don´t really need, it´s not like that anymore. (not yet, runs for 9 months now, no significant slowdown, only 2 breakdowns.).

when you regularly install and remove software for testing or because you need to update to the newest version, with the 9x sytstems, your installation is f´d up after a maximum of 6 months. you have 100s of registry entries that point nowhere, everything gets slower and slower, the machine breaks down here and there, upon rebooting / shutdown, the machine hangs.... and so on.
i´ve tried "cleaning programs". 1000s of files that i don´t need, but these programs also deleted stuff i DID need. so this is no solution either.

only way to get a clean windows installation: keep your data separate, format C: and then reinstall. only install programs when you actually need them, this makes the interval of reinstalling longer

cool, THANKS! i have here win2000, is it the same much with XP right?