Hi All,
dennylee wrote:
>Thanks for your reply. I do have LBA mode enabled and NT is seeing all of the
>drive. Fdisk in Linux however is not. I was told that I could go into fdisk
>export mode and change the cylinder size. I would not mind experimenting if it
>is my home computer. However, the computer is at my work and I have already
>reloaded Windows NT 4 times in the past month and a half (my main reason for
>Linux) due to constant registry corruption. Anyhow, my C drive is filled with
>NT already and I really don't want to kill it again. Do you have another
>suggestion?
OK. If you have your HD which is filled with NT4 (which means either FAT or
NTFS partitions) then you do not have too many different ways of making space
to install Linux.
note: an important fact to know about FDISK (anyone, pls do correct me if I am
wrong) is that it uses a DESTRUCTIVE partitioning method which means that your
data gets lost when you partition/repartition your HD.
The way you want to avoid:
- reformat your HD with 1 FAT primary partition for NT4 (below the 4Gb
limit as NT4 boot sector must be below 4Gb).
- Then create an extended partition for the remaining space on your HD
- Re-install NT4
- Keep in mind you need to keep, say 100Mb space below the 1024 limit
where you will install your Linux / (otherwise Lilo will not be able to
boot Linux).
- Linux EXT2/SWAP partitions will be created in the extended partition
alongside FAT or NTFS partitions.
The way you may think is the best:
- Because it is a company PC and you do not want to mess it up and also
you want to avoid re-installing the NT4 bloatware then my suggestion is
to ask the company to buy 'Partition Magic v4' from Powerquest. It costs
�40 in London and it will simplify your life a lot, believe me!
This program runs native on NT4 and will allow you to move/shrink/resize/
format your partitions at will, including EXT2 and SWAP partitions for
Linux... and it is non-DESTRUCTIVE which means (except if you delete a
partition on purpose...) your data will be safe and you won't have to
re-install NT4.
Now when I installed Linux 3 weeks ago, I used Partition Magic v4 from w98
and here is how I partitioned my 8.4 Gb HD (from a DELL XPS300 from Jan98,
at that time 8.4Gb was about the biggest you got in ready-made config from
Dell or Gateway).
1st primary partition:
- FAT32 / 2200Mb / W98
2nd primary partition:
- FAT / 500Mb / NT4 (not yet installed)
Extended partition (up to 1024 cylinders)
- FAT / 500Mb / Data partition accessed by w98/NT4/Linux
- NTFS / 2200Mb / NT4
- SWAP / 130Mb / Linux Swap
- EXT2 / 100 / Linux (/)
- EXT2 / 1800Mb / Linux (/usr)
- EXT2 / 200Mb / Linux (/home)
- EXT2 / 150Mb / Linux (/usr/local)
- EXT2 / 100Mb / Linux (/usr/src)
- EXT2 / 40Mb / Linux (/tmp)
- EXT2 / 40Mb / Linux (/var)
- EXT2 / 40Mb / Linux (/opt)
note: the amount for each partition may be slightly different but I do not have
access to my PC right now so I cannot check the exact figures but it does not
really matter.
On top of that you get "BootMagic" with partition Magic v4 and it allows you
to boot multiple OS, and it is a piece of cake to set up and use.
The specific pbm I had was that my extended partition was going up to the
1027 cylinders and when I was running the Red Hat 5.2 installation and calling
DRUID to allocate my physical partitions to Linux /, linux /usr and so on... DRUID
was not displaying all the already formatted SWAP and EXT2 partitions.
I then went back to Partition Magic and reduced the extended partition to the
1023 cylinders and restart the installation process, DRUID then displayed
all the SWAP & EXT2 partitions.
There is an HOWTO on Large disk which might of be interest to you.
How many partitions have you defined for NT4? Are they FAT or NTFS or a
mix of both? Is all your data important? Is there any you can afford to lose?
You need to plan how you want your HD partitioned? Remember, once a
partition is deleted, there is no way back!
Fred
"In a World Without Fences and Borders who needs Windows and Gates!"
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Frederic Soulier
mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
tel: +44 (0)181 562 0959
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