I m using DELL Vostro.I hv installed Fedora 9.o and now I want to install xp as well but I m getting message that "setup cant find any harddisk attached..".
Linux is working fine.Currently linux is using all disk space.Is there any problem with filesystem or MBR??????
Plz help.....

If fedora is using the entire disk , it means that there is no room for
for Windows XP.
They only solution I know of is making a first primary partition file system =
NTFS for windows XP and the rest for Fedora 9
But you need a utility to do so .
For instance gparted on a live CD
May partition magic is also available as LIve CD but, this not free ware
Dual booting easy way install Windows XP first

all the best

There are two problems - firstly, XP cannot find any disk.
Possibly it doesn't have the drivers for you HDD - say, if it is SATA. OOTB Sata support is very patchy in Windows. Especially older releases.

Once the drive is visible, Windows will complain that the disk is not formatted or corrupt. This is the second thing: you have no free disk space for XP.

This will be an issue as fedora uses LVM by default - you'll have to resize the volume to create free space on your drive. The free space then needs to be a primary partition for windows to live happily.

Once windows is installed, you still have to reinstall GRUB.

Basically, it is much easier just to dig up an old HDD and install windows to that instead.


Scratch installs of XP remind me of the gnu/linux early days... no HW support, nasty install fubars... MS thralls I know think nothing of remastering the install disk to get things working, much as we used to recompile the kernel.

Thanks for the reply,
I formatted the whole disk using partion magic in Fat32 filesystem,then also encountered the same problem.I m able to install fedora 9 again and agin using image restoration but not XP.XP's setup is unable to detect hardisk even without fedora installed.
If problem is with HDD drivers how can I install it,will installing Vista solve the problem?????
Thank you!!!!!!

Installing any proprietary OS will cause different problems anyway.
What you need is usually provided on a CD with the motherboard.

You need to ask on a Windows board.
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Probl...ve-t52997.html
... I'm only guessing you are using SATA.

Possibly, you can try going into BIOS and enabling the legacy setting for the sata controller.

When you formatted to fat you did try to install windows first in the first primary partition?

Thanks Simon,Ronlau and Lary for ur replies specially Simon for the link,the problem has been sorted.The problem was with the driver of SATA HDD.I changed hdd confg from AHCI to ATI in BIOS and it worked.

Cool - now that's done, how about editing your profile to show a location and distro. You can even create a pithy signature.

Tip - it is good practice to type out the extra letters in words. "ur" (for eg.) is normally "you are" or a grunt: two more letters are needed to make "your". The message you're sending is that it's not worth the effort to press two more keys... which leads to the question: is it is worth the effort to reply? When you look through the threads, you'll see how l33t abbreviations get associated with immaturity.

Also helps to leave a blank space after commas, periods and such stuff. Easier to read.

OTOH: you've done pretty well. You provided enough information in the first post to actually take a stab at a solution. This is quite rare.

Why do People insist on using that ancient 1995 format called fat32 USE NTFS FOR WINDOWS XP!!!!
fedora can read and wright to ntfs just fine .

One good reason is any repairs done in the fat file system can be done by either os and ntfs has to be done by windows.

Thanks Larry - also, ntfs is a closed proprietary filesystem. (And which ntfs are we talking about?) As such it disrespects your freedom. At least the FAT specifications are well known now.

The relative venerability of a file system is not, by itself, sufficient information for selection.

Unless formatting ntfs would solve the problem here (it wouldn't), then it is OT. Still OK, if it represents sound advice. For example, would formatting ntfs for a Windows partition prevent some sort of problem down the track?

just try and save a 4.2 gig .iso on a fat drive

I am not saying it is for everyone. Both have their advantages but it is not polite to stomp something someone else is using because they most likely have a reason for using it. I personally have a 250 gig fat 32 partition. If I store anything larger than 4 gig I usually burn them to dvd.

But why would I ever want to do that? The fat32 is for Windows, not work!

(Note: by the same reasoning, you should condemn everyone using 32 bit.)

... or: use a gnu/linux fs which supports such file sizes?Second that... especially when you don't know the reason.

@John: how about some diplomacy? You do not know that OP has no good reason (to them) for their choices. Try starting out with a question:

"Have you considered formatting the Windows partition to NTFS?" Then citing the advantages and why those advantages should be important to the audience you are addressing.

"This will allow you to handle very large files (eg. 4.2gig ISO) in Windows in the future."

However, you have failed to respond to the main reason in my post, vis: ntfs does not respect user freedoms.

he, I think ntfs with no file amount limit is good today