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Grex Micros Item 203: Creating a new partition
Entered by jy420 on Fri Apr 9 18:48:44 UTC 1999:

I am trying to install Linux onto my pc .. i already have windows on one
partition and would like to add another partition.. when i use cfdisk or fdisk
from linux and try to creat another partition i can not for some reason.
if anyone knows how i can go by doing so then please leave a response ..
thank you very much and have a nice day! :P

13 responses total.

#1 of 13 by valkyrie on Sat Apr 10 14:58:56 1999:

If you already have windows installed, you need to run something like
FIPS (on the linux cd) or Norton's Disk Magic.  I think it's Norton's.
Anyways, you can't just make a partition where there is already one, 
you have to shrink the existing one.

Your other option is to wipe the drive clean, create two (three if you
want a swap partition) partitions, install linux into the second one,
then install windows into the first one.

I usually get a nice clean installation this way, only having to reboot
once more with my boot disks and run lilo again.

#2 of 13 by gregb on Thu Apr 15 00:54:42 1999:

To add to that:  Before you run fips, befure and defrag your HD first.  
As to the inclusion of /swap, it's my understanding that you _must_ 
include that as one of the std. partitions.  At least that's how it was 
with Red Hat.

#3 of 13 by darkskyz on Fri Apr 16 17:44:28 1999:

re #2: actually, it's not /swap ... mounting a partition at /swap won't make
it swap space. you need to create the partition as type linux swap instead
of linux native, and it can't be mounted.

#4 of 13 by gregb on Sun Apr 18 16:57:55 1999:

So who said anything about mounting?  But you are correct.

#5 of 13 by dang on Fri May 7 21:36:43 1999:

resp:1 If you install windows first, it won't munge your LILO.  Also, if
you install linux first, if you put LILO in the root linux partition
rather than the superblock, then Windows doesn't munge LILO at all, it
just sets the Windows partition as the default partition.  Then, from
Windows fdisk, you just set the active partition to be the linux
partition, and you're back in business.

#6 of 13 by mwg on Mon May 10 17:57:52 1999:

I use the LILO in the Linux superblock method.  It works well.  If you
want to install Linux on a seperate hard disk, then you must do one of two
things.  Use the MBR method,and have backup boot diskettes in case Windows
does something stupid, or just create direct boot diskettes, but be sure
to keep multiple  copies of the disks.  (The boot diskette method can also
be used to enable older units to use hard disks that thier BIOSes will
barf on, in theory, an old 386 using a boot diskette could use a 12gig
drive that the BIOS would scream at.)

#7 of 13 by dang on Mon May 10 19:47:52 1999:

There's one more possibility.  I have a two hard drive setup on one
computer, and what I did was to install Windows on one drive when it was
the only drive in the computer.  Then, I added a second drive, and set
the it to be primary, while the Windows drive then became secondary.
Then, I installed Linux on the first drive, and used it to boot
Windows.  It has the drawback that, if I want to reinstall Windows, I
have to play with drive configurations, but it keeps my Windows and my
Linux completely seperate.  I can upgrade one drive without affecting
the other, and I can switch to only having one OS on the computer
without affecting the other.  (Can you tell I play with my computers a
lot? :)

#8 of 13 by mwg on Wed May 12 19:49:05 1999:

Neat trick, I'll have to remember that one.  Does the Windows drive turn
up as C when it boots, or does Windows get the fidgets?

#9 of 13 by dang on Thu May 13 17:14:21 1999:

No, it turns up as C.  As far as it knows, it's the only drive on the
computer, since it only counts drives/partitions that it can understand.

#10 of 13 by gregb on Sat May 15 20:05:19 1999:

Forgive my ignorance, but I don't see the advantage of this setup.  I 
have three physical drives in my box:  Two IDE's and a SCSI.  My 
primary IDE is my Windows drive (C:), while the secondary IDE (D:) was 
used as my Linux drive.  I had no problems with this arrangement.  When 
I added my SCSI drive, I moved Linux to that.  Everything's running 
fine.

#11 of 13 by dang on Wed May 19 03:36:40 1999:

The only advantage is that LILO is installed on the Linux disk, and
Windows is completely seperate from Linux in terms of disks.  It's a
small thing, but I do lots of OS related stuff, so it's useful to me.

#12 of 13 by raven on Fri Oct 22 07:04:01 1999:

re #7 How do you use Linux to boot Windows?  I'm trying to set up a duaol boot
sytem myself with the 2 oses on seperate drives and haven't had any luch so
far.

#13 of 13 by mwg on Thu Jan 20 20:08:29 2000:

(Picking up on the old items here.)  If you still need this, there are a
few questions, like which was installed first, Windows or Linux?  What
physical drives are in use, just one or more than one?

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