Partition for Linux ?

[quentinterintino]

Hello all,

I've been meaning to install red hat in addition to XP on my desktop. I've got an 80GB seagate and a POS 40GB maxtor(which has some corrupt sectors).

I am assuming that red hat won't work on an ntfs file system, so what should I do for the install?

Thanks

 

[n0cmonkey]

Put the cd in the cdrom drive, boot from the cd. Follow the steps. You'll need some free space on one of the drives.

 

[drag]

just leave plenty of unformatted space on whatever harddrive you plan on using and let the installer partition and format it for you.

You need 2 partitions. A root partition and a swap partition. But you can have more if you want. Swap needs to be about 500meg or so. By default Linux doesn't use a Pagefile like Windows stuff, it uses a completely seperate partition.

Give it about 6-10gig and do a "install everythig" install. So you don't miss out on any packages by mistake.

The installer has a intellegent partition setup in it so you can let it do the partitioning automaticly if you don't want to mess around with it.

It won't resize your XP partition if you need it too (at least I don't think so). Knoppix boot CD has a qparted utility that can do it, or you can use partition magic.

Be sure that you have a working rescue disk for XP before you do anything though. That way you still can get Windows to boot even if something screws up and you get a mangled MBR.

 

[quentinterintino]

Cool thanks for the help, sounds a lot easier than I was anticipating. I plan on burining an iso of all the important stuff before I proceed though, just in case.

 

[phpdog]

Im planning on installing SuSe on my HDD along with Windows XP Pro.

Can i Install Windows First ?

And if so would i then need to format a partion FAT32 to instal SuSe on ?

I have 4 partions on my HDD There all NTFS .

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: phpdog
Im planning on installing SuSe on my HDD along with Windows XP Pro.

Can i Install Windows First ?

It's typically recommended you do so.

And if so would i then need to format a partion FAT32 to instal SuSe on ?

Good god no! There are better filesystems. FAT32 should not be used for anything more than small removable media.

I have 4 partions on my HDD There all NTFS .

Some lesser OSes have issues with this. You may need to use less.

 

[drag]

Install Windows first.
Leave unformated space at the end of the harddrive.
Install Linux, let the installer take care of partitioning it (unless you know what to do) and let the installer take care of dual booting.

It should work out, but just make sure that you have a way to boot into Windows even if the Linux bootloader doesn't get installed over the Windows bootloader correctly. (basicly have a rescue disk aviable if your worried about it)

And if you have enough room besure to choose "install everything" option so that you don't accidently miss anything you'd want to use.

 

[phpdog]

What would you recommend in the amount of Disk space to leave for SuSe ?

 

[drag]

10gigs is a good start. 4-5 gig minimal space for a full install, but you'd want space for userfiles and such. 512megs for the swap partition.

 

[phpdog]

Perfect

I have a 13gig Partion unformatted , so i'll use that

Thanks