Yes - restart your computer. When you are restarting, make sure that you follow either my instructions, or Saulgoode, or GnuTex to the letter.

found the terminal but when I entered fdisk-l it replied bad command and i do not know how to capture an image in fedora to show you, the only icon on the screen is 'save to disk' and along the bottom I have a terminal and a files cabinet that only shows me having the usb drives E/: F/: and G/: a.k.a. accer, accer-data and Kingston

There should be a space between fdisk and -l

fdisk -l

If you are running Fedora Live with an internet connection, you should be able to paste your output back to here using Firefox.

Also, I noticed that you have the LXDE Live CD there. There is another Live CD for Gnome Desktop, which is Fedora's default Desktop Environment. You might want to use that -vs- LXDE.

I will download the gnome desktop as well, I am crrently using 64bit windows so should I download the 32 or 64bit version

Since your hardware is 64-bit, you can use either version but you might as well go with the 64-bit version. 64-bit is faster but it might not be as compatible across a range of hardware as the 32-bit version.

On mine I type su - to get to the (root@localhost) then on mine it asks for a root password but I don't know if you need that on a test one.
On the next line after [root@localhose -]# (type) fdisk -l

what Molly said. On the live CD, you first enter su and press the enter key to become root (no password required), then enter the fdisk -l command. Also, make sure you have the USB device you plan to install on connected to the system when you boot from the Live CD.

Looks like you did not connect the USB device you plan to install Linux on. You need to do that before booting with the LiveCD.

Linux is seeing two physical hard drives and one mounted CD media.

Linux sees the first drive as sda with Windows NTFS (the disk size got clipped in your screenshot)

Linux sees the second drive (80g) as sdb with FAT32

Connect the USB device, boot up again with the Live CD and run the fdisk -l command again. Linux will most likely designate your USB device as sdc but you need to verify that.

What kind of USB device do you have connected? Is it a USB thumb drive or a USB external hard drive? How big?

All I'm seeing are two internal drives, one looks to be your main Windows drive (sda) and the other is an 80g FAT32 Drive (sdb).

I don't see anything else. Is that an 80G USB external drive?

Here is an example of my system that contains 3 hard drives and 1 USB flash drive plugged in. You can see how Linux assigns drive designations to each drive. sda, sdb, sdc and the USB drive is sdd

Tux I have a 500 gb main C/: drive and the 80gb hard drive from my old pc connected via a USB cable and partitioned into 2 40 gb drives (E/: and F/:) accer and accerdata as well as a 2gb Kingston drive G/:
C/: main HD 500gb
D/: DVD drive
E/: USB 40gb
F/: USB 40gb
G/: USB 2gb

Yes, I see the 500g Windows drive. It is designated as sda in Linux.

Your 80g external USB is designated sdb.



Including the diagnostics partition, there are 3 partitions on there, as you can see.

I assume you want to use the entire 80g drive for Linux, correct? That's what I'd recommend.

went back to terminal for another look it seems i cut off a couple of lines in my screenshot but what you suggest is correct, will i still be able to use a CD or DVD to boot from.

Yes. Once you install Linux to the 80g USB drive (designated sdb), you will not need to use CD to boot. You should be able to boot directly from the 80g USB drive by selecting it from the dynamic boot menu.

Basically, you will need to install Fedora from the Live CD onto your 80g USB drive sdb. There are a couple of options that you need to select when installing. You need to direct the installer to use the entire 80g drive. You need to uncheck "use LVM" and you need to write the bootloader (grub) to the MBR of your 80g USB drive sdb. This will leave your Windows drive untouched and allow you to boot into Linux from the USB external drive using the dynamic boot menu. Just make sure you don't install anything to sda, including the bootloader.

Give me a little while and I'll put together a quick step by step.

The only thing I would add to GnuTex's advice is that you don't need to dedicate the whole 80GB to Fedora if you don't want to. Install Fedora on the 1st partition (or the second) of the 80 GB and leave the rest for Windows if you want.

You can always mount this drive once Fedora is installed and you will have access to all the data in it. One advantage is that Window will be able to see it and use and so will Fedora. Note that you can easily access an ext4 formatted drive from Windows. This will make it easy for instance to share photos between Windows and Fedora.

Thankyou GNUTUX for all your assistance in my endeavour to have a dual boot system,it's nigh nigh time in this part of the world so I will eagerly await your instructions tommorow.

Sorry about not getting this up last night. It was late and I was sleepy.

From this point on we will assume your external 80g USB drive is sdb and that will be the target of our Linux install. Boot Fedora 17 Live CD and verify that Linux is seeing your 80g USB drive as sdb. After confirming that, select Install to Hard Drive from the application list.

I've put together some screen-shots that should help with the installation.

Select your language and click next.


Choose basic storage devices and click next.


You can use the default settings for hostname and click next.


Select timezone and click next.


Create an administrator password (root password). You will be asked to create a User Name and password later.


1) Select "use all space" for the installation
2) Unselect "Use LVM"
3) Select "Review and modify partitioning layout" and click next.


Highlight your 80g USB drive on the left side list and click the right arrow to move it to the install list on the right.


Check the bootloader box beside the 80g USB drive (sdb) on the right side install list then click next.


You can verify your selection on the next screen then click next.


Click "Write Changes to Disk" and then click next.


1) Select that the bootloader will be installed to your 80g USB drive /dev/sdb
2) Click "Change Device" to verify that the MRB will be used on your USB drive designated sdb
3) Click OK then next.


The next screen will install Fedora 17 to the target drive.


After install is complete, reboot and select your USB drive using the dynamic boot menu.


After a few seconds on the Grub Menu,the system will boot to Fedora 17. You will be asked to create a username and password, setup time/date and such, then you'll be presented the logon screen and you can sign into Fedora 17 using the username and password you just created.

That completes the install process. You can remove the Live CD.

Fedora will also see your Windows installation and give you the option to boot to Windows From the grub menu, as well. Report back when you complete the install and I can direct you to the software installer, where you can start installing applications, codecs and such.

Hope that helps and good luck!!