partitioning hd

[cjlax5]

i have a 40 gig drive and i want to install linux on a seperate partition. i think im gonna make it about 5 gigs, and what program would you guys recomend using to make the partition?

Thanks

[Jon]

If you don't want to wipe out your current Windows installation you'll need something like Partition Magic.

If you're starting with a clean drive, I would just FDISK it.

[Garfield]

How exactly do you use FDISK? I'm in the market for a new HDD.

[Jon]

It's pretty self-explanatory when you get into it.

Boot to a Win95/98 boot disk that has FDISK on it and then use the options available to create primary or extended partitions. Logical partitions are then needed to be created within the extended.

For example, if you wanted two partitions, C: and D:, you would create a primary partition of whatever size you wish and then set it active. This would be your C:. Setting it active makes it your boot drive as well. You would then create and extended partition with the remaining space. Once the extended partition is created you will need to create a logical drive in it which will be your D:.

Exit and reboot to save changes. All that's left now is to format and install.

If you can get past the fear of the DOS interface, it's simple to use.

[Shadow ÒÓ]

if you boot from a 98 cd, you'll find the fdisk program in the win98 directory.

[nodoze]

FDISK is easy to use especially if your partitioning a brand new disk. But if you are re-partitioning an existing hard disk you will loose whatever is on it.

[Garfield]

Well, I'm going to be doing this with another slave drive. I already have a primary one with Windows 98 (I know, a little outdated) installed on it. I just need more program/file space. I also will want to put Linux on in the future. Not yet, though. I just need the space for now. So, the first partition of the new drive would be D: and then the linux would be it's own accessed from Linux.

So you partition then format the partition?

[Shadow ÒÓ]

unless you use something like Partition Magic. You can resize/create/delete partitions on the fly and not lose data.

[Garfield]

Do you suggest PartitionMagic, Shadow? Your suggestions are valuable to me. Thanks...

[Shadow ÒÓ]

personally, I love the program. There's a trial version at downloads.com I believe.

[nodoze]

I've used Partition Magic for a couple of years now. Like everything it takes a little bit to get used to but now I find it a pretty simple thing to adjust my partitions & I don't loose any data.

[Garfield]

What is the difference between the trial and the real version? I think I'll just invest in the real full version, anyway. Sounds like something good to have.

[nodoze]

With Partition Magic you create a "batch" of changes. With each change added to the batch, P.M. shows you, graphically, what the effect will be on you disk. After you are satisfied with all of the changes, you tell P.M. to "Apply" them. The difference between the Trial & Full vesion is that you can't apply the changes in the Trial version.

[David]

As a hardcore command line fan I always use DOS FDisk or possibly Linux CFDisk.

What is the point of the trial if you can't make changes :D