[NTLUG:Discuss] Long dual boot question

[Wayne Dahl]

Hi all,

I need some info about doing a dual boot with Linux and Windoze 98.  Let me 
tell you what has happened to this computer I'm asking about.

My wife doesn't see very well and needs the computer set to 640 x 480 
screen resolution, whereas I like it at 1024 x 768 on my 15" monitor (I see 
like a hawk).  I had screwed up and left the monitor set to the higher 
resolution and my wife, unable to read the icons on the desktop very well, 
went into the Accessibility options (it was a Windoze 98 OS, not sure which 
version as it was loaded on it when we got this hand-me-down computer) and 
set the option for higher visibility fonts with black on white high 
contrast.  That was a bad mistake because it appeared to corrupt some files 
on the computer.  Apparently, Windows doesn't like for you to use those 
accessibility options in a higher screen resolution.  I have been unable to 
fix it and it won't even boot up into Safe mode.  The dialog box pops up 
saying you're in safe mode, I click ok on that an immediately an error box 
saying Explorer has caused a general protection fault in an unknown module 
(real helpful, huh?).  When I click on that ok button, the safe mode dialog 
box comes back up and it gets stuck in a loop you can't get out of as each 
dialog box comes back up after clicking ok.  The only thing to do is hit 
control-alt-delete and reboot to a floppy.

The filesystem would come up ok because I could see it from this computer 
on my internal network, so I was able to copy all of the application 
directories and applications to another computer, although being able to 
get them to work again on a fresh install of Windows might be a challenge 
unless I can just reinstall them from scratch.  The desktop was completely 
unusable and would not completely boot up.  The bootlog didn't really show 
any major problems either.

This computer came from my mother-in-law's boss and he may have the 
restoration discs for it (the computer came from CompUSA and is one of 
their home brand jobs).  I have never been able to get the onboard sound 
card to work on it as it appears that her boss had somehow removed the 
drivers for it (have been unable to find any drivers for it)and it doesn't 
have an add in sound card.

Here is the skinny on the computer...

Intel Celeron 466 Mhz
256 Megs 130 Mhz RAM
1 6 Gig hard drive, C:, no other drive currently, although I have plans to 
add an 80 Gig HD to it.
CD-RW drive (can't remember the brand, but it worked out of the box with 
the existing CD-ROM drivers)
PS-2 Mouse, PS-2 keyboard (although once I get it back up and running, my 
wife uses a natural keyboard using a USB connection)

Can't think of anything else pertinent, but here comes the dual boot 
question.  First, if I'm going to load Linux (Red Had 7.3) and Windows on 
this machine, which do I load first?  I've had to fdisk and format the 
drive because it was just unrecoverable and plan to just reload it.  Should 
I format the drive with Linux and set the partitions with it first, install 
RH 7.3 and then  install Windows into the FAT32 partition?  And never 
having done that, if it's done that way, then how does the Windows 
installation CD see that partition?  Is there anything special I need to do 
to get it to see it or does it see it automagically?

Next, how would you set the partitions?  Windows and the applications that 
were loaded on it were taking up about 3.5 gigs of space.  Is 2.5 gigs of 
hard drive space enough to do a Linux install now with the ability to add a 
LOT of space later once the new hard drive is installed?  Or should I just 
go ahead and install Windows now and wait until I can get a new hard drive 
for the space?  I eventually plan on using the current C: drive as the boot 
drive for Linux and the only drive for Windows.

Off the topic of the dual boot, a friend of mine went to the Saturday sale 
in downtown Dallas and got some really good deals on a sound card, 256 Megs 
mem for $30 and an 80 Gig WD drive for $70 (might have been somewhat 
less).  What do you guys think of getting parts at that sale?

Sorry that this was so long, but I've been fighting this problem for a week 
now and my wife is both beating herself up for messing up the computer (it 
was really my fault for leaving it in the higher resolution and I've told 
her over and over that was so) and driving me nuts to get it fixed.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Wayne