(Pre)Installation Questions.

[Nostalgia]

I have two hard drives in my machine - one 180GB (master), and one 80GB (slave). I have Windows XP on the 180GB (master), and the 80GB (slave)is freshly formatted using NTFS. I wish to put FC2 on the slave, 80GB drive.

I am downloading the FC2 ISO images as i write this, and am planning on installing it tomorrow onto the 80GB drive. I am brand new to the Linux world, and have the following questions:

As far as i know, FC2 does not work with NTFS. Should i reformat using Fat32, or is there a step within the installation for FC2 that will format the hard drive using it's own file system? I have asked this question at several places, and no one thus far can articulate a clear answer.
Keeping in mind that i have Windows XP on a completely different hard drive (not a mere partition), how will i run a dual-boot on this machine? Each OS will have it's own hard drive - are there bootloader programs that take that into account, or do all of them assume that you have two operating systems on one drive?
EDIT:
I have an Athlon 64 3200+, so i figured it's probably best if i go with the 64-bit Fedora? Here is the downloads page (http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/2/x86_64/iso/), i am downloading the following files, ignoring the others:
FC2-x86_64-disc1.iso
FC2-x86_64-disc2.iso
FC2-x86_64-disc3.iso
FC2-x86_64-disc4.iso
Are any other files required to successfully install 64-bit Fedora?

I have not searched for these answers yet, and i apologize if they have been recently answered.

Thank you very much in advance, i am looking forward to my journey into the world of Linux.

Nos.

[Optimistic]

Your installation should go just fine. The install disks will automatically partition that second drive for you and set up a boot loader so that you can boot into windows. Don't worry about changing that 2nd drive to FAT32 because it will get converted to ext3 anyway when you install FC2. FC2 can change drive letters, but since your dirves are different sizes it shouldn't be any trouble figuring out where to install FC2. The slave will most likely show up as hdb and the master as hda. You can use the disk druid to set up partitions manually if you wish, but you might not need or want to. There is a bug that can make a dual boot FC2/WinXP go badly where you can no longer boot into windows, but there are fixes if you run into it--just don't do anything rash. If it happens come here and we can help you and you will not lose any information on the WinXP disk.

A Tip: Once you install FC2 on the second drive, GRUB (the boot loader) will go there too, so make sure that the second drive is active in your bios otherwise after what appears to be a flawless install your computer might not boot at all--it will just say GRUB and you can't do anything.

Another tip: Be sure to intall the development packages, it will save you headaches later.

If you run into problems after the install just post the problem here or Google it and everything will be fine. After a few weeks you will probably just dump WinXP altogeather because FC2 and the Linux community can do everything that Windooze does--most of the time better.

[Nostalgia]

What a fantastic reply, thank you.

Afew questions concerning the content, though:

A Tip: Once you install FC2 on the second drive, GRUB (the boot loader) will go there too, so make sure that the second drive is active in your bios otherwise after what appears to be a flawless install your computer might not boot at all--it will just say GRUB and you can't do anything.

Are you referring to boot order, here? If so, how should i have it set? C:, then D:, then CD?

Another tip: Be sure to intall the development packages, it will save you headaches later.

Where can i get these?

If you run into problems after the install just post the problem here or Google it and everything will be fine. After a few weeks you will probably just dump WinXP altogeather because FC2 and the Linux community can do everything that Windooze does--most of the time better.

I doubt it as i do plenty of graphics and web design, and would like to put the thousands that i have invested in software to good use. Unless already-purchased PS7, Flash MX, and Dreamweaver (all for WINXP) are Linux-compatible?

There is a bug that can make a dual boot FC2/WinXP go badly where you can no longer boot into windows, but there are fixes if you run into it--just don't do anything rash. If it happens come here and we can help you and you will not lose any information on the WinXP disk.

Are you at all aware of the cause to this bug? If it is known, how can i avoid it?

Thanks again,

Nos.

[Optimistic]

No problem.

Are you referring to boot order, here? If so, how should i have it set? C:, then D:, then CD?

No, not the boot order, your boot order should be something like CD, Floppy, then Hard Drive. Just make sure that the bios can see the second drive. This might not even be an issue for you, but it does happen. It depends on which BIOS you are running, but in mine I just set the second hard drive from inactive to active (I think, it has been a while and I don't want to restart my computer right now to see what it says)--at any rate it is just something to check, should be fairly self-explanatory. You just don't want that second drive to be set to "Off", "Inactive" "Disabled" or something like that. Just hop in the hardware section of the Bios and take a peek.

The development packages are on the disks and when you get to the point in the installation where it asks you which you want, be sure that they are selected (this means that you will have to pick the custom install option--which you should do so that you don't install things that you don't want and do install those things that you do want). The development packages are at the bottom of the list.

Unless already-purchased PS7, Flash MX, and Dreamweaver (all for WINXP) are Linux-compatible?

Sadly, no. Instead of PS7 we have the GIMP, we are trying (through various online petitions) to convince Macromedia to port Flash MX to Linux, buy they haven't yet. Instead of Dreamweaver we have Quanta Plus and NVU (among other things)--Quanta is on the disks and NVU can be downloaded--I like Quanta better than Dreamweaver, but that is mostly because I'm not a WYSIWYG kind of guy--just give me those tags and let the magic happen. You might be able to get those apps to run with Wine, but I'm not sure. Anyway, not much point in Wine if you have WinXP.

Are you at all aware of the cause to this bug? If it is known, how can i avoid it?

No, not really. It didn't affect me, so I didn't research it much--I just know that it happens sometimes.

Oh, I forgot to say it before so I'll say it now:

Welcome to Linux!

[Nostalgia]

Ok, great, i plan on installing it tomorrow since these ISO's are still downloading. I am getting the right ones, correct? I am ignoring the ones labeled SRPMS..

Nos.

[jrittvo]

You're getting the right ones. Just the 4 you listed. And you may already know this, but in case not, you will want to burn the CDs -FROM- the iso files, not burn CDs -OF- the iso files. Roxio or Nero or whatever you use should have an option to burn CDs from an "image file" or "disc image". That is what you want to be doing.

[Nostalgia]

Oh, hmm.. i typically just use the windows burning software for burning data, and iTunes for burning music..

Nos.

[jrittvo]

Windows XP doesn't know what to do with an iso file on its own. Go here, and read about this little add-on...

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

It's free and it will do the trick for you if you don't have a full burning program. An iso file isn't a regular data file. It's more like a mapping of data for simplifying the copying of CDs. Programs (like this add-on) that know how to deal with an iso file create a CD with the individual files and folders and other structures that are described by the iso file. They don't make a literal copy of it as though it was a typical data file.