On 3 Oct 2002, LL Phillips wrote: > Regarding the statement "Each would need a separate partition, AFAIK" > I've recently considered dual booting my W98SE hard drive which is 40G > total size with only 20G used made up of C: primary partition and > D,E,F,G,H all logical drives in one extended partition (each around > 3-6G each) > > When I put in my W98SE boot disk to make a second PRIMARY partition I > was not allowed because fdisk told me there was already a primary > partition existing. > > If I wanted to have W98SE, Debian and Peanut Linux all on the same > drive how would I go about that. Was I wrong to put in the W98SE boot > / rescue disk. Lindows (I'm an insider > /pre-general-release-by-subscription user) will install beside windows > if one has space on the drive, (it is called a friendly install). I > felt it was too risky to proceed because I didn't want to damage my > W98SE main everyday machine. Asus A7V motherboard. > > Would you advise using a Linux distribution root / boot diskette > combination to set up my hard drive. (I've ruined about 8 laptop > drives in the past trying so am nervous). > Lorraine >
Lorraine: It would help if you were to explain a bit more about what you're trying to do. Perhaps you know already that Linux does not need to be installed to a primary partition? And yes, M$'s fdisk is very limited in the way you can manipulate your hard drive. M$ would like for you to have only one primary partition on your drive (and would like for it ot be the exclusive property of Windows, in case you didn't know :) ). Of the OS's you mention, perhaps only Peanut Linux would require a primary partition insofar as, as I understand it, it is meant to install to a DOS partition. If it does *not* require a primary partition, there are other utilities (freeware/shareware) that will allow you to create either primary or extended DOS (FAT whatever) partitions. I could recommend some, if that would help you. Unfortunately, partitioning drives is *always* tricky, and there is always some risk of data loss. Commercial progs with a nice gui (e.g., Partition Magic) give some greater sense of security inasmuch as they give you a visual representation of what they're doing. But even they warn about the potential for data loss. Based on some more information about precisely what you'd like to do, perhaps I can make some more helpful suggestions. Sorry if I've misunderstood your inquiry. James - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
