Partitioning My Harddrive

I have downloaded Mandrake Linux and I am going to burn it onto a CD soon. I hear it is good to partition your harddrive when you add another operating system. I have a C and D drive. The C drive contains the majority of the memory will the D drive only contains about 2GB. I am wondering if I can just install Mandrake onto the D drive? Can I make the capacity of the D drive larger? Am I going to have to make a whole new partition? Someone please help me out. Thanks.

Oh yeah...if I do have to make a whole new partition, how do I do it?

http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/

Well, there's quite a few different ways you can do that. But first you need to think what you want, build your strategy so to speak. Linux needs it's own partition, which will have it's own format, different from vfat. A program that will suit your needs perfectly and is extremely easy to use is partition magic. You can pm me if you'd like to talk more about partition magic.

You could use Fdisk and make a few partitions but you would loss all your data. I think you can install Mandrake 8.1 on a windows partition. Not sure about this it was 4am when I installed Linux so I might have been hallucinating when I saw that option. I'm sure one of the Linux experts around here might know something about that.

I installed Mandrake and found it to be painless.

How large are your hard drive/s??. What is your perpose for wanting to install Mandrke (Besides the fact that linux Ownez). Curiosity, web server, ect ect? If this is your first time installing Linux, and you are just testing the water so to speak. Then 2 GB should be fine. I dont use mandrake (DEBIAN IS KING) so I am not shure what all comes with. But I would have to say install the base system, and then add to it. Learn how to compile and install from source. That way you get a real feel for the system. Once you have figured out how to manage your linux install, then you can decide on how you may want to repartition your drive/s. With any luck you will get rid of Microcrap, and run a good OS. By the way Lindows is coming soon. It will be the best of both worlds. www.lindows.com

what Valor said is the best soloution , with partition magic you can play with your HDD partitions, making larger or smaler. But I would like to remined you someting, may be you know them but any way.
It is better to set up every OS on a primary partition not extended logical, and also use "system commander" or "osl2000" for multibooting ( having several OS on one HDD).

http://www.antionline.com/showthread...516#post460516

Here a post i wrote up a while ago after i dual booted my Comp with windows ME and SusE Linux 7.3 have a read it might help.

Kindred69

My C drive has a capacity of 12.6 GB. My D drive has a capacity of 3.15GB. So you guys think I should get partition magic and create a whole new drive and then install Linux on there? Or should I put it on my D drive.

And will I have to worry about screwing up windows when I am partitioning and installing Linux. This will be my first time. Should I backup files on windows, or do I have to worry about that..

Oh yea, I am going to be using Linux mainly as a webserver so I can test out scripts.

Where can I download a full version of Partition Magic?

you dont need partion magic, most Linux distro's have a partion manger within them, go to the link i gave i my last post it has alot of info there and a few links that would be of help.

You can download it here:
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/pmdemo.html

What all u said basicaly boils on to one thing...u are new with linux and just need a web server installed..cool.In my opinion 2GB is fine for this job....the in built partition manager (Disk Durid or likes) will do the job ....but there is a problem .......if ur d drive is not the first partition (which i assume it isint)then most of the linux ver. will fail to load or lilo will fail to install..i hope that does not happen with u.to get around this problem u will have to make the d drive ur first partition ...using Par. Magic or Rashin' Partition Magic(FreeWare)

Yes, exactly, I've had a couple run ins with the same problem as coolnads said. PM cured it right up. Also, the demo on their site will not let you actually change anything, only a simulation...yay for demos? bleh.

Ok, so alls I have to do is make the d drive my 1st partition with PM (which i found). Will this screw up anything on my C drive? Will I notice a change in anything if the D drive is my first partition??

And I still have to burn linux onto a cd. How do I do this. I have 3 ISO files and md5sums.82 file and the readme file. How do I burn these, do I have to do it a certain way? Do they go on different discs? Someone please help me. And then after I burn them, how do I actually install the OS?...

bilo86,

after 3 linux installs on lappy, i too am into my 1st dual-boot attempt. i think that most included software (disk druid,etc) will do a "destructive" partition so you'd have to have at least 1 full backup of your old windowsX sys. you could, however, compress all the data on your drive, effectively makeing another partition that windows "owns". then use the disk druid,or whatever to blow that partitiona away and make a new one out of that space for your new OS. :-))

Ehh.. I didn't really get what you said. This is my first time installing linux and partitioning. I am a newbie in this field.

I am going to do this:

Make a new partition which will be 2 GB. Then I am going to make another partition for Linux Swap. Then install Linux.

How does that sound?

Hey Bilo,

If you are using PM, create your linux partition, then create the swap partition from your linux partition. Then, install Linux. When it asks to format the partition, keep close eye to what it's asking and what it's doing. A friend of mine lost his FAT and had to reinstall both Linux and Windows

Thanks tyger, now I am just having trouble burning the ISO's. Nero keeps freezing up on me when it gets to the burn process...any help?

Exactly what is the problem? Does it tell you something or just the computer just hang?

The computer starts hanging, after waiting 7 mins, it said please insert an empty medium. Then it freezes again when I put a blank cd in.