[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > *** I have used Partition Magic (www.powerquest.com) to resize > partitions. How is your HDD partitioned at present. Is it just one > whole chunk with windows ? What is your HDD size ?
>To be honest, I don't really know. I think it is one big FAT32. It is definitely only one partition. It is 40Gigs in size. If it's Windows 2000, it can be FAT32 or may be NTFS. Windows 98 I believe can use either FAT16 or FAT32. Partition magic can tell you all of that. If you have a 40 Gig HDD, then get Partition Magic (PM) version 7.0 . Do not get Version 6.0, as I have ran into problems with version 6.0 on my 40 Gig drive. Version 7.0 can handle partitioning on drives up to 80 Gig. PM has a very user friendly graphical interface, and very easy to move copy, delete, and create partitions. I have tried some freeware stuff, but had a hard time using them. Also Windows 2000 does have a disk management tool that allows you to create partitions, but I don't think you can move partitions like in PM. > What you can do is shrink the first partition which I presume is > Windows. >Presumption verified. Yeap that what most vendors do when you buy a PC, unless you do it yourself. > You can install Linux right next to it. But beware you may > not be able to install /swap though. It would not do it for me. >Yeah, thats what I'm thinking. I've got a lot of 'free' software on it, so I don't necessarily want to lose it all, which is why the bother. I think sacrefice the software (most of which I may never use) and re- fomat with a multi boot. *** Does you data take the whole 40 Gig ? You can find that out from Windows Explorer. Just select the harddrive from the top level and click properties, and it will tell you how much space you have used on it. If you are using much less than 40 Gig (i.e only 30 to 50% or less), then here is what you can do with PM (this will save you having to re-install windows and setup your windows environments again. This assume that you are using Windows 2000, but you can follow a similar anology for Windows 98 and lower etc ..): 1. From the R.H.S in PM, Shrink your primary partition down to about 20% over where you data limit ends (You should be able to see where your data ends from PM); 2. This will create unpartitioned space after the windows partition. Now at the far end (r.h.s) create a logical FAT32 partition (about 6 Gig or higher depending on how much space your data is taking). 3. reboot your PC. 4.Now transfer all your data to that logical drive (Use Windows Explorer to do that). Please note that software that loads dll, etc.. in windows system directory and registry, may not load properly. Just re-install these softwares that don't load properly again but point them to the new logical drive where you transferred them. 4. Now you can safely delete all your data from your primary partition. (make sure that you have transferred everything before doing this); 5. Now for Windows Operating System itself you should be able to do with about 6 Gig to 10 Gig for it. So you can shrink your windows primary partition to again, if you so desired, a bit more. Leave some umpartitioned space right next to it, in case you are running out of space, and need to expand it again. Easy to do with PM; 6. Reboot again for the changes to take effect. 7. Now proceed to install Linux. 8. Restart you PC, and hit the "delete" key. Get BIOS to boot from you cdrom first, then c: drive, then floppy, and save changes. 9. Load in the Linux PC and re-start your PC. This should load up Linux install from the CD, and follow the instructions from the manual to create partitions; 10. If you plan to install the whole of Red Hat or whatever vendor for Linux, then 3 Gig should be plenty. When partitioning for Linux try and leave room for your windows primary partition. i.e. do not just put Linux partition right next to windows. If you do that you will not be able to grow the primary partition when you run out fo room. This is where it might prevent you from creating a swap partition for Linux. It would not work for me. So I decided to forget swap. 11. When installing Linux do not load LILO or Grub boot loader in the Master Boot Record (MBR). Select to have it installed in the boot partition for Linux. This is because you want Boot Magic to go in the Master Boot Record (MBR) (comes with Partition Magic) record. 12. If you have installed Linux properly, then re-boot your PC, and go in windows. If you have not installed Boot Magic yet, then do so. Then re-start again, and load up Boot Magic from within windows, and select "Add", and you should see the Linux there. Just select it, and save. 13. And voila, when you boot now Boot Magic will have two options. One to go in windows, and the other to go in Linux. With this setup, you should still have unpartitioned space, if you do not have a lot of stuff installed. So as you Logical data partition runs out of space. Just use PM to create another Logical partition for your windows data. If there is no more room, then a 2nd HDD is the solution. It is best to install data in a logical partition, rather than in the primary partition itself. This I learned the hard way from personal experiences. Also in Linux you can mount your windows partition, if you ever need to access them from Linux. Their manual should tell you all of this. Note: If the Linux boot partition is over the 1024 Cylinder limit, it may not even boot from Boot Magic. If that happens, then you might be best to get a 2nd HDD, and install Linux on there. You should be able to boot from Linux from the 2nd HDD from Boot Magic. If all fails, then you need VMWare (http://www.vmware.com) . Good Luck Louis. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
