How to format a new disk in XP Pro?

[arnemarco]

I have just installed a second 80 Gb Maxtor in my rig. Idea: format the 2nd disk in Fat32 to install Linux on it.

But, when I boot the system in XP Pro and goes to diskmanagment, XP only allows me to convert the new disk in a dynamic disk. There is no offer to format it?? Is this because the maindisk is NTFS. The problem is that I can't install Linux on a NTFS-disk nor -partition.

I want to install the SuSE Linux 8.1 evaluation copy.

How shall I do this right??

 

[dvogel]

You should be able to boot from the SuSe CD. At some point during the installation, the SuSe installer will allow you to partition the second hard disk in any way you wish. After it is partitioned, Windows XP should play nice with it (although it will not show up in Explorer if it is anything but FAT or NTFS).

Regards,
Drew Vogel

 

[mee987]

what winxp should have done the first time you entered disk management after putting in the new drive is 1. ask you if you want to initialize the disk, to which you should say yes. 2. ask you if you want to convert the disk, to which you should say no. 3. ask you if you want to format the disk at this time, and it gives some formatting options. you can format it now or you can bypass this and format it later

 

[arnemarco]

The SuSE CD doesn't see any HD's for installation.

XP did start an assistant for initialing. But because I didn't know what to do, I broke it off. But now the only option is to convert into a dynamic disk, when I rigthclick on the disk ...

But I see now, that when i rigthclick the graphic bar, I can choose partitions. I want to part it in 4 parts, but shall I choose primary or not because it is the 2nd disk???

 

[arnemarco]

OK, I will answer myself. This seems to be the way. I am now formatting a FAT32 partition on disk2 for Linux ...

 

[mee987]

you can have more than 1 primary partition, i have 3 hdd's in my system, one of them split so i have 4 partitions total. all of my partitions are primary partitions. i dont really know what kind of partitions you need for linux, but i would assume primary since they are bootable

 

[arnemarco]

I am not quite used to this, it was all "easier" as we worked with DOS 6 and Win 3.11 ... now you have to rethink a lot to understand what MS want to tell you ... but it seems to get right now ... I have 1 primary and 1 extended partition on each disk. The extended partitions are parted in 3 logical parts, so in total I have 8 partitions ... the 1st disk is a NTFS disk, the 2nd a FAT32 ...

I need the 2nd primary to test out Linux. Do I like it, I will install it permanently in the 2nd disk. If I don't like it, I will make a RAID-system with the 1st one ...

 

[mee987]

primary and extended partitions are not a new idea, nor are they part of a much larger elaborate scheme by microsoft

 

[arnemarco]

No, I know the kind of partitiones are not new. No, it is the way of working with XP ...

 

[mee987]

with increased functionality and flexibility sometimes comes increased complexity

i dont mean to sound sarcastic or asshole-like here, but you can always make a boot floppy with fdisk on it if you prefer to partition that way. of course you lose ntfs support, but in cases like yours it works

 

[arnemarco]

No, I didn't have the impression that you were sarcastic or something like that ... meanwhile the formatation is ready, so now I will try a new reboot with Linux.

Thanks for your answers ... (wish me luck please )

 

[majewski9]

Boot from SUSE CD since I believe it uses its own filing system.

 

[arnemarco]

Yes, I did that. But yet it said it did not find any partition to save my files ... has this something to do with the Evalutionversion?? When I try to install OpenOffice, it says I haven't enough space free on the disk??

In the surface, I see the 4 FAT32 partitions mounted, but in the properties it says thay everyone has 2.7 MB free of 11 MB!!

I have a HP 930C connected trough USB. It detects the printer ... but is not able to print??

Actually I don't understand nothing ... and this is not very conveincing if they want to beat Windows ... or is the evaluationthing just crap?? Is the real distro better??