Harddrive space for Linux?

pc_builder

pc_builder

New Member
I'm on the verge of installing Windows 2000 Pro on my laptop. I also want to install linux later on.

So, instead of using something like Partition Magic, can I just leave part of my harddrive unpartitioned?

Would that be easiest?
 
leave some unpartitioned space, that'll make life a lot easier later on. for a modest experiemental linux install i'd leave several (at least 5) gigs free.
 
Yeah, it depends on what packages you want to install, but you'll want a lot at first to play around with. Also, depending on the distro, dependencies can rear up and bite you in the butt.
 
you don't need too much for getting a handle on linux, especially if you don't use it as a primary OS, my desktop install is taking up about 2.7gb, not counting my home directory, quake3 or UT.
 
Yeah, I was planning on putting aside 5 gigs.
I still haven't decided on what distro to go with yet.
I'm leaning toward Red Hat. :bgpimp:
 
pc_builder said:
Yeah, I was planning on putting aside 5 gigs.
I still haven't decided on what distro to go with yet.
I'm leaning toward Red Hat. :bgpimp:
Click to expand...

I really like RH9 (Shrike)
I believe, form what I hear, that when RH10 comes out, windows
will be on it's way out. :nerd:
 
RH8, RH9, and the latest beta will all see the Winders partition and setup the bootloader accordingly as long as you use GRUB, which is the default. It's all automatic. During the install, just leave the Winders partitions alone. During bootup, GRUB will present you with a menu to choose which OS to boot to.
 
RH8, RH9, and the latest beta will all see the Winders partition and setup the bootloader accordingly as long as you use GRUB, which is the default. It's all automatic. During the install, just leave the Winders partitions alone. During bootup, GRUB will present you with a menu to choose which OS to boot to.
Click to expand...

Postcode, they'll see NTFS5 partitions? I hadn't heard that. I've been mounting FAT32 partitions since Mandrake 8. Note that I use boot.ini insteatd of the linux bootloader, but I use windows 2K more than linux.
 
Yes they will. As long as you use GRUB as the bootloader, the partition, either FATass32 or NiceTryFS, will get added in.
 
I'm using Mandrake 9, and I can see FAT32 (I had to mount it) but not NTFS5 (don't have regular NTFS). Might have to switch. PC Builder, I like Mandrake because they have a lot of hardware support and are really easy to install.
 
Ok, I'll start researching Mandrake, too. Do I need the bootloader to see my NTFS fartition? Is that for the booting options or something?
 
I'm really not sure if 2K uses NTFS5. However, I do know that RH8, 9 and the latest will see XP partitions fine, which uses it. I don't use drake myself. Never really like the way it worked.
 
unless your distro is clinically braindead it should be able to read/boot fat or ntfs without a problem.
If you're trying to boot from a windows partition that partition should be set active and you need to configure your bootloader properly, which most distros do a decent job of during install, otherwise you can configure it later, if you're using grub you can figure it out yourself, for lilo you need to edit /etc/lilo.conf like so:
example lilo.conf said:
# example /etc/lilo.confboot = /dev/hda # place lilo in MBR of first diskdelay = 40 # Wait 4 seconds for user to press Ctrl or Shift # This way your mother won't have to do anything to # boot her windows 95other = /dev/hda1 # The windows 95 partition label = windows table = /dev/hdaimage = /boot/zImage-2.0.33 # A Linux kernel, located in the /boot directory root = /dev/hda2 # The partition that will be mounted as root label = linux # The name you should type in to boot this kernel.
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* briefly curses at IEsupport for both is incorporated directly into the kernel. if you're just looking to mount one in linux you may need to load the module. try "modprobe ntfs" or "modprobe vfat" if lsmod doesn't report the correct one loaded and you can mount a disk using the following:>mount -t <ntfs|vfat?> </dev/device> </mnt/point> <any extra options, see "man mount">that may be overkill for the question but i just got up.
 
I doubt that lilo or grub being able to boot to certain filesystem has anything to do with them recognizing the partition, they only care about partitions not filesystems.
 
Why would I need Linux to see my ntfs partition then? I'm not planning on mounting my windows partition in Linux, unless I'm misunderstanding what you're all saying.
 
Well, I didn't think it could. I have a FAT32 partition that I keep all my mp3s and whatever else I might want to use in both OSs so that both can see that partition (I also share that partition with the wife and her Win98 machine).
 
The important thing is that is sees it as a valid partition that is bootable during the installation of the O/S. Other than that I personally see no reason to see the NTFS partition within Linux. You just want it to see be albe to see it during the install.
 
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