Partitioning w/o Format vs. Dual Boot

Mission: partitioning without formating and creating a dualboot system with *nix and win.

#1/Partion Magic is the only tool I have used. Does anybody have any good advice on others that exist, that are perhaps better than Partion Magic? Freeware, shareware, or something I'd have to purchase. I am not interested in reformatting however

#2/I am currently running Win Xp home ver. and I just received a full copy of Redhat Linux ver 7.2. So after I partion out my 95 giger, I plan to install it on one of the new pations. My question however, does anybody have any advice on creating a stable dual boot system.

Couldn't I just copy con a "dualboot.bat" and write in options 1=linux and being 2=win :confused:

Anyhelp would be great, thanks alot

If you just stick in the RH cd and change BIOS settings to boot from cd, the installation should start up.
At the start of installation it will allow u to partition your HDD to allow dual booting!
Start by reading this
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...install-guide/
Heres some info on partitioning
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...partsetup.html
Just read on from there, which should give u a pretty comprehensive guide to partitioning!

Hope this helps

r3b007

Partition Magic is a fabulous tool and the best that I know of. I haven't found anything better. If you use partition magic, part of the advantage of it is that you don't have to reformat. You should be able to resize any freespace to open it up for your Linux install.

Now, I will say that the RH version you have is buggy. I wouldn't recommend it. I would choose the 7.3. Also, don't rely on a script to do this stuff. You won't learn a lot and I don't think there is one that can do it (I haven't heard of anything). Just pop in the first CD, boot from the CD and begin the install. DO NOT let it do the default install as that will wipe your Windows section. I usually choose custom and install the "toys" I want to play with.

yes. follow these instructions.

defrag your hdd. then use partition magic to make your windows partition smaller. the create a linux partition and make that however big you want it. with a 95gig hdd make a linux swap file and make that 5 gig.

once all thats done. set your bios to boot from cd. install linux and it will setup your dual boot automatically.

*WARNING* if you want to unistall linux. a format will not change the boot sector and you will be screwed. the easiest way to uninstall linux is this.

place your xp cd in and wait for it to boot. go into the repair console. the type in this order

fix boot
fixmbr

then you can restart

it will restart into windows, from there you can delete the linux swap and partitions using partition magic.

cheers

Theres absolutely no point in making a 5GB swap partition, unless you're using around 2GB of RAM, which is unlikely!
Your best of using your space wisely, even though u got a big HDD.
Id say devote about 40GB of your HDD to RH, of that, partition as follows:

1GB - root
1GB - swap
5GB - temp
10GB - home
23GB - usr

JMHO

r3b007

1GB of swap!? Geez.. what are you doing? Maya?

General rule of thumb, IMHO for most users has be 2x. I took the following from RH's site:

Quote:

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From RH's 7.2 Install Guide Unless you have a reason for doing otherwise, we recommend that you create the following partitions:

* A swap partition (at least 32 MB) — swap partitions are used to support virtual memory. In other words, data is written to a swap partition when there is not enough RAM to store the data your system is processing. The size of your swap partition should be equal to twice your computer's RAM, or 32 MB, whichever amount is larger, but no more than 2048 MB (or 2 GB). In Disk Druid, the partition field for swap should look similar to the following:

<Swap> hda6 64M 64M Linux swap

For example, if you have 1 GB of RAM or less, your swap partition should be at least equal to the amount of RAM on your system, up to two times the RAM. For more than 1 GB of RAM, 2 GB of swap is recommended. Creating a large swap space partition will be especially helpful if you plan to upgrade your RAM at a later time.

* A /boot partition (50 MB) — the partition mounted on /boot contains the operating system kernel (which allows your system to boot Red Hat Linux), along with files used during the bootstrap process. Due to the limitations of most PC BIOSs, creating a small partition to hold these files is a good idea. For most users, a 50 MB boot partition is sufficient. In Disk Druid, the partition field for /boot should look similar to:

/boot hda1 16M 16M Linux native

Caution

If your hard drive is more than 1024 cylinders (and your system was manufactured more than two years ago), you may need to create a /boot partition if you want the / (root) partition to use all of the remaining space on your hard drive.

* A root partition (1.2-3.5 GB) — this is where "/" (the root directory) will be located. In this setup, all files (except those stored in /boot) are on the root partition. A 1.2 GB root partition will permit the equivalent of a workstation installation (with very little free space), while a 3.5 GB root partition will let you install every package. In Disk Druid, the partition field for / should look similar to:

/ hda5 3734M 3734M Linux native

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Now while having more never really hurt, there is no need to have a 1GB (and certainly not 5GB). I presently run RH7.3 with a swap of about 256MB while having 192MB of Physical RAM. Certainly smaller than recommendation but I've never had problems with it.

Home and temp are huge as well. I take it that temp is a download directory you use? usr being large never hurt and certainly never hurt to have root large either.

dopeydadwarf:

Redhat7.2 Manual

MsMittens: 1GB of swap, isnt that much compared to the amount of RAM that users now use!

Im only running 256MB RAM, but swap is 1GB. This extra 500MB of space isn't gonna be missed and im just planning ahead for when i upgrade to 512MB, which by todays standards isn't extraordinary!

Quote:

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Creating a large swap space partition will be especially helpful if you plan to upgrade your RAM at a later time.

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;)

Yeah temp is a download dir, hence the size!

Mines i a workstation, so root doesnt need to be that big, just enough if you ask me ;)

no, thats not what she is talking about. you cannot have a 1Gb swap file. it at least has to be 1.99Gb swap file.

when someone says read things as proof, dont not read and and lie to yourself that you know everything

For learning how to dual boot using the win2k bootloader, the way you're asking, look at this that I posted yesterday.
Cheers,
cgkanchi

Quote:

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Originally posted here by Trust_Not_123
no, thats not what she is talking about. you cannot have a 1Gb swap file. it at least has to be 1.99Gb swap file.

when someone says read things as proof, dont not read and and lie to yourself that you know everything

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Eh???

Of course i can have 1GB for a swap, who says i cant?

It has to be at least 1.99GB???

I DO NOT claim to know everything, i know feck all........but please dont preach to me!

Thank You