Fear of losing both existing Fedora versions (3 and 6) on installing version 7

[lesliek]

Hda came with my computer and has Windows XP on it.

I installed hdb and it has on it Fedora versions 3 and 6.

When I boot up, I choose which of the three OSs I want to run. (99% of the time, it's Fedora 3.)

I've got a DVD with the Fedora 7 .iso on it.

My wish is to replace Fedora 6 with Fedora 7, while retaining Fedora 3.

When I run the installation from the DVD, it identifies my hda as sda and my hdb as sdb.

I'm not sure that that's any more than a cosmetic error.

More importantly, though, when I say I want to boot Fedora 7 from sdb, I get a warning that ALL Linux partitions on sdb will be removed.

I don't want ALL Linux partitions to be removed, just the ones for Fedora 6.

If I go past the warning, will I be able to limit the removal of Linux partitions from hdb ONLY to those for Fedora 6?

Thanks for reading,

Leslie

[SlowJet]

First list, here, the partitons with a
# fdisk -l
and next to each type the name like FC3 / or FC6 /boot or FC3 /home or /Swap

Then answer these questions.

1. When you installed FC3 you created a /boot parttion on the hdb1?
2. Did you create a /boot partition for FC6 as hdbn?
3. When you installed FC6 did you used advanced grub option to install the boot sector on the hdan /boot partition of FC6? Or did you let it install on the mbr of hda and change the grub entries? Or did you install FC6 into the same /boot as FC3? And if so where did you put the boot sector - hda or hdb.

SJ

[lesliek]

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply, SlowJet.

Here is an extract from the requested fdisk output, limited only to the internal hard drive called /dev/hdb:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 14 1318 10482412+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb3 1319 1449 1052257+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdb4 1450 4865 27439020 5 Extended
/dev/hdb5 1450 1462 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hdb6 1463 4865 27334566 83 Linux

hdb1 is FC3 /boot
hdb2 is FC3 /
hdb3 is FC3 and FC6 swap
hdb5 is FC6 /boot1
hdb6 is FC6 /1

As to your three numbered questions, on reading them, it occurs to me that I didn't give all the information I should have in my original post.

For a reason I can't now recall, when I installed FC3, I used a Windows program (is it called NTLOADER?) as the mechanism for selecting my OS, making FC3 the default OS selection.

Then, when I added FC6 to the mix, I still used the Windows program, simply adding FC6 as an additional option. I seem to recall that adding FC6 just involved editing the Windows file called boot.ini.

If I should be giving precise details about the material in last two paragraphs, please say so and I'll try to supply them.

Thanks again,

Leslie

[SlowJet]

OK, you can install F7 using the FC6 partitions

1. When you get to the disk druid in the anaconda installer it will show sda and sdb with checkbox on the left.
Uncheck sda then
up above is a long button dropdown that ask about what to do for partitioning.
click it and set it to manual / custom.

Then click next and the partition screen will show.
Since you are not using LVM you only need to select each FC6 partition and then click the edit button up above.
You then need to select the /mount and check format for each one (They will all be ext3 except for the swap, set that to type swap and you don't need to format it.)

So
sdb3 = swap
sdb5 = /boot
sdb6 = /

The next item is very important and don't forget it when don with the partitions,
click the advanced option chceckbox at the bottom of the screen.
At the top make sure it is saying to install the grub bootloader.
then click the next button.

At the top of the next screen it will say where do you what to install the boot mbr - make sure it is on sdb5.
remove the "other" boot entry and select Fedora as default.

clcik next to continue.

On the first re-boot you should be able o select the FC6 boot.ini option and it will take you to the F7 grub menu.
(edit the boot.ini file to say Fedora the next time you are in windows.)

Count yourself lucky for using the boot.ini in windows and using seperate /boot partitons
otherwise you would be facing the end of you linux systems due to grub versions and the next installment of SELinux will relabel the /boot partition in F7, which FC3 may not like.

good luck, .. I mean more good luck

SJ

[lesliek]

SlowJet,

Many thanks for your instructions, which I've now followed.

I write to you using FC3 (which, I have to admit, I still have no complaints at all about), but I have also tested F7 and everything works as you said it would. Next time I run Windows, I'll amend the boot.ini file, but, as you also predicted, if I choose FC6 in the Windows bootloader, I get FC7 anyway, so the change will be a merely cosmetic one.

I'm pleased to discover that I've been lucky in using the Windows bootloader. I've since remembered that, at the time I was about to try Fedora for the first time, I found on the Web an article that suggested using the Windows bootloader on the basis that it would least disturb your Windows installation. That appealed to me then, because I was very unsure about Linux. Of course now, I couldn't care less about preserving Windows and the only reason I keep it is that I paid a lot of money to buy it!

Thanks again,

Leslie