Before you start re-formatting, re-sizeing, re-installing, etc, go to your '/mnt' directory and check to see if there's a subdirectory (folder in WinSpeak) called 'windows' or 'win_c' or something? If there is, then you've not deleted your Windows partition! If there's a little padlock over the icon (in KDE's Konqueror) then you won't be able to access it. Look for other threads here about 'mounting' drives/file systems. At a quick guess, if you type (from a terminal window):
mount vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows (substituting the 'windows' part for the above directory, and the 'hda1' part for the partition on which windows
should reside,
). This will only work
if the above directory exists and
if windows is installed! If this works, read about mounting and about your 'fstab'. You can skip the next bit, if it worked. Below is stuff about running programs in KDE!
So long as
one of your partitions is formatted as FAT16/FAT32 (commonly known as VFAT) you
can install Windows onto it. However, if you want it to run at anything of it full potential (ahem!), it must occupy the 1st partition (which, obviously must be VFAT).
Before I learnt exactly what the
Master
Boot
Record was, in order to remove Linux (which was a bad idea, but I needed the HD space
) I installed Windows over the Linux partition (after changing it's filesystem back to VFAT) and then had a system that
did boot, but ran like a deformed puppy!
If you've not got any files of great importance, and you've got some time to spare (like, a long time) then:
- Boot from your RH installation CD and remove all partitions from your HD.
- Repartition as much as you will, but make sure that Windows' 'C drive' is the first partition. All others (Linux Natives & SWAP) come after it/them!
- Quit the RH installation! DO NOT INSTALL LINUX YET
- Install Windows.
- Install Linux.
- Make sure you do make a Linux boot disk.
- Install Lilo/Grub/Whatever into the MBR.
- Sit back and enjoy!
You can install Linux 1st, but then when you install Windows it overwrites the MBR and you will need to use your boot disk to get into Linux and then re-install Lilo into the MBR. Some people do it this way, but
if you're going to reinstall Linux anyway, why make more of a hassle of it?
----==== RUNNING PROGRAMS UNDER KDE ====----
As for opening programs under KDE - make sure that they are 'eXecutable' by that user. Under Windows files may have the attributes:
Hidden
Read Only
System and
Archive
Under Linux files have have e
Xecute. They also have 'owners'. If you're trying to run a program from within KDE, right-click on it (from Konqueror) and check the file-permissions. If you've not got permission to 'eXecute' it, then you must log on
as the user that created the file (maybe root?). Now that you're the 'owner' you should be able to run the program, but try changing the permissions for all the other users. It's not safe to be using your machine as 'root' all the time!
You can do this with the 'chmod' command (from a terminal window), but you might have to read about it first. From a terminal window, type 'man chmod' (without the quotes).
Good luck with it all, and sorry about the number of smilies, went a bit overboard (
).
).
