mandrake 10, already got 3 partitions...

[meg 0]

 

Hello!

 

I just started uni and have been introduced to linux. I now want to set it up on my home system to dual boot with windows xp professional. I already have 3 partitions on my computer. c: 13gb primary with windows xp installed ntfs. d: extended, with my data 35gb ntfs and e: extended that is blank 18gb ntfs which is where i want to install linux. i was planning on converting d (data) to fat32 with partition magic 8 so linux can write to this as well as win xp. is that the correct thing to do.

 

after this i boot from the cd to install linux however this is where i am confused. what option do i select in my situation for installing linux if i want to install it on e: ? will it automatically divide e: into the partitions it requires? and dual boot so i can continue using xp when i want to? i dont want to lose winxp. i know this question may have been asked before but i need to know specificaly how it would go for the above scenario? and i think it is better to ask then be sorry in the long run.....

 

meg

[SoulNothing 0]

welcome to linux

with my experience with dual booting with win xp

id recommend using the installers partitioner off hand im not sure if fat32 is correct with linux but if using mandrake it should come with a partition app during install so again id recommend using that

 

[meg 0]

i forgot to mention that my program files for windows xp are located on d:\. so currently its like this

 

C:\ NTFS, Windows XP Pro

D:\ NTFS, Data and windows program files

E:\ NTFS, nothing

 

i do not want to lose any data or files on drive d, thus i would like to keep it ntfs. so should i merge d and e in windows with partition magic.

 

e.g. finish with this

 

c:\ ntfs, windows xp pro

d:\ ntfs, data and windows program files

 

and then run the mandrake installation? if so wll the mandrake install have give me the option to insall it to/create a new partition ?

perhaps e:\ which is where i would like to install mandrake? this can be can be anything fat 32 ntfs it does not matter to me i just do not want to install it to d... also it does not matter if i cannot access c or d when linux is installed

 

wow. that took a bit of explaining and i hope you can follow it. i am trying to explain what i want to do as clearly as possible. its difficult for me to find out the best way to go about installing linux with xp given my current configuration...

 

i just discovered forums a few days ago and they are proving to be very helpful!

 

regards

 

meg

[danleff 0]

Good questions!

 

Let me share my partial experience with this.

 

Normally I would recommend using the Mandrake partitioning tool to change your partitions as you like. However, I do not know how it handles NTFS repartitioning. But this is what happened to me with one of my installs.

 

I used PartitionMagic 8 to create a fat32 data partition to share with Mandrake. This is correct. You need a fat32 share partition. If anybody has more experience with this let me know. I can read and take data from my primary NTFS Windows XP partition within Mandrake, but I don't know if write to the NTFS works..have not tried it yet. It is supposed to work. But we will see.

 

I then did the Mandrake install using the "expert" option on booting the Mandrake disk #1, This has always worked for me in the past with Mandrake. This allows you to custom partition your drive(s) without Mandrake trying to choose / at the first Linux partition that it sees. This was applicable for me, since I have multiple linux partitions and Mandrake wanted to put / on one of my other Linux partiitons already occupied by another distro.

 

I then set up the ext3 partition for Mandrake at the last partiton on the drive (previously set up as ext3 in PartitionMagic). Again this had always worked for me before.

 

I let the install proceed. Alls seemed fine. Mandrake auto set an option in grub for the XP boot. All was well.

 

However, when I boot into XP and open PartitionMagic, it sees the drive as "bad." No alterations of the drive are possible and PartitionMagic is unable to correct the apparent geometry issues that it detects ("overlapping sectors between two partitions").

 

When I removed Mandrake, PartitionMagic was able to read the drive OK, without any errors. All my other Linux distros had a problem with the Mandrake partition. However, qtparted also has problems with the drive with Mandrake on it.

 

There is something that has changed in the new Mandrake partitioning tool that affects PartitionMagic's and qtparted's ability to read the drive correctly.

 

So, if you plan on leaving the system as it is, with XP partition/data fat32 partition/Mandrake partition, you should be fine. So, I suggest the following;

 

1. Use either Mandrake or PartitionMagic to set your fat 32 and Mandrake partitions, do not use both. I suggest creating the data fat 32 partition to be on the safe side. You can always change this later on, although there is no real reason to do so. NTFS support is still new and I am cautious about this.

 

2. Back up all your current existing data.

 

3. If you plan on resizing partitions later on, be prepared that this may be an issue with PartitionMagic.

 

4. DapperDan had an experience with backups with a fat 32 partition, I think using Linux. be aware of that and have an alternate back-up plan for the data partition, such as a cdr or dvd for important data, just in case.

 

I realize that the above mmay be an error on my part in allocating partitions correctly, but be safe.

 

 

 

 

 

[danleff 0]

Oops, you got yours in first!!

 

Forget my scheme for the partitions!

 

By the way, how large is your hard drive/the partition that is empty and that you want to do the Mandrake install on?

 

What make/model system do you plan to install Mandrake on?

 

If you have the room, this is what I suggest.

 

Run defrag before you do anything! on both the XP and d: drive with the program files.

 

Be very careful about the first XP partition. I found that I had to run defrag a few times before it moved all the data on my XP drive toward the begining of the installed XP partition.

 

Back up all your data.

 

Do not alter the d: drive. This has your program files on it and is a NTFS filesystem!!!

 

The issue is that I do not know if Mandrake will properly use the last NTFS filesystem to install mandrake on.

 

You can delete the empty NTFS at the end, if this is an issue.

 

Leave space at the end of the drive for the Mandrake install. at the very least..10 gigs or more if you have the space and depending on how much you plan on using the Mandrake partition and how many apps./storage space you plan on using. A basic install would be about 5 gigs, if you plan on just trying it out, but this limits your expansion possibilities. I don't recommend it. You will always use more, believe me!

 

Install Mandrake, allowing it to use the free space that you have. When you get to the partitioning utility during the install, choose custom install and allow it to allocate the free space.

 

An alternate way to do it, is to add another hard drive to the system for Mandrake, if you are short on space, or are unsure about the above.

 

Disclaimers If you have a Compaq, HP or Gateway system...be careful. These systems can have a hidden partition that holds recovery information and possibly bios data. You do not want to overwrite this space by accident.

 

Before you do the install, make sure that your hardware is supported by visiting the Mandrake site, or feel free to ask us, if you are unsure.

 

[meg 0]

hey

 

my hard drive is 60gb

 

i intend installing mandrake on athlon xp 1800, 512mb ram, msi motherboard, onboard sound, gforce mx420 64mb graphics card.

 

so here is the plan

delete e:\ so all i have is this

 

c:\ ntfs - windows xp - 15gb

d:\ ntfs - windows program filse and data - 45gb

 

run defrage a few times on c:\ and d:\ to move data to the start of each partition. i dont have to move the data and program files on d:\ over to c:\ do i?

 

when this is done will mandrake 10 be able to install on the remaining available space on d:/ ? when i get to the partitioning part will it allow me to allocate some spare space from d:\ for the linux installation? if so will it install linux on d:\ or will it create another partition e:\ for linux?

 

sorry i just want to get it right from the get go!

 

meg

[idud 0]

Hi meg,

 

Actually you don't have to change anything about the partition before installing mandrake, it will give you the best (especially dual boot with winblow$). Maybe sometime (just like danleff's problem) mandrake has some wrong way when handling already-setted linux partition.

 

Danleff's suggestion about choosing expert option will be good for you, I choose expert too when I first installing Mdk-8.2 3 years ago, and success. But of course backing up your data is very suggested.

 

Mandrake will let us manage partitions manually when choosing expert option and then choose "custom disk partitioning" at the partitioning stage. It will give you full explanation about the partitions that currently exist. you just have to delete the correlated partition (in this case the last partition (e:\)), and the re-create with linux journaling filesystem (reiserfs, jfs, xfs, ext3), but remember not to use all free disk for system because you have to create another partition called "swap".

 

But now, if you already merged d:\ with e:\ , don't worry to try to use free space on disk to install mandrake. But remember to bac-up your data and if the free space settled you have to create (at least) 2 partitions , 1 for system and 1 for swap.

 

OK, I hope this post won't confuse you.

[danleff 0]

Yep, as idud stated, if you deleted E: and did not merge it with d:, Mandrake will use the free space to allocate the partitions that you need.

 

If you did merge d: and e: already (as it looks like from your description of partition sizes), then resize d: to make enough "empty space" at the end of the drive and let Mandrake use this free space during the expert install. PartitionMagic or Mandrake partitioning tool, whichever you choose to use, will show you the relative free space on the d: partition, so you get an idea of how much available space is on the d: partition that you can use.

 

To clarify;

 

If you delete a partition, like e:, this will leave this space as empty space at the end of the drive that Mandrake will be able use. D: does not take that space, unless you tell your partitioning software to do that. This is not necessary. The empty space will show in PartitionMagic, for example, as just empty space...c: and d: will remain the same size.

 

 

Make sure that you run defrag to move all the blocks together and toward the begining of each partition. This prevents and data from getting writen over.

 

Remember my comment about the overlapping partition that Mandrake seemed to make. You want to assure that if this indeed does occur, no data is written over, hence, the defrag. You can watch the graphical details during defrag to see if the data is indeed moved away from the end of the partition, which is what you want. again, it may take more than one pass with defrag fore this to occur.

 

Back up any data on d: just in case something does happen. Since d: is a NTFS partition, I do not know how well Mandrake will properly allign the space that it uses, relative to the existing, d: NTFS partition.

 

I hope that this has not been too confusing!

 

[idud 0]

Originally posted by danleff:

Quote:

Back up any data on d: just in case something does happen. Since d: is a NTFS partition, I do not know how well Mandrake will properly allign the space that it uses, relative to the existing, d: NTFS partition.

 

I hope that this has not been too confusing!

 

In my experience, just like I posted in neighbour-thread (Mandrake 10 newbie review) Mandrake did unwell on NTFS, so if you're not sure about what are you doing, please don't do anything in NTFS partition with Mandrake, take the safe manner such as repartitioning your HD again with PQMagic on winblow$.

 

I've once succeeded when resizing FAT for installing Mandrake-9.1, first it will scan for free space on the disk and then reporting to us how much is the free space, and ask us how much space that we want to keep for FAT, and use the rest for linux.

 

It's me confused now :x

 

[idud 0]

Originally posted by danleff:

Quote:

Back up any data on d: just in case something does happen. Since d: is a NTFS partition, I do not know how well Mandrake will properly allign the space that it uses, relative to the existing, d: NTFS partition.

 

I hope that this has not been too confusing!

 

In my experience, just like I posted in neighbour-thread (Mandrake 10 newbie review) Mandrake did unwell on NTFS, so if you're not sure about what are you doing, please don't do anything in NTFS partition with Mandrake, take the safe manner such as repartitioning your HD again with PQMagic on winblow$.

 

I've once succeeded when resizing FAT for installing Mandrake-9.1, first it will scan for free space on the disk and then reporting to us how much is the free space, and ask us how much space that we want to keep for FAT, and use the rest for linux.

 

It's me confused now :x

 

[jimf43 0]

Originally posted by meg:

Quote:

I already have 3 partitions on my computer. c: 13gb primary with windows xp installed ntfs. d: extended, with my data 35gb ntfs and e: extended that is blank 18gb ntfs which is where i want to install linux. i was planning on converting d (data) to fat32 with partition magic 8 so linux can write to this as well as win xp. is that the correct thing to do.

 

You say your HD is 60GB

hda1: 13GB XP

hda2: 35GB NTFS

hda3: 18GB NTFS

13+35+18=66

This doesn't compute... get a calculator!

 

You need about 15GB for the Linux & another 1GB for the swap

15+1=16

hda1©: 13GB XP

hda2(D): 31GB NTFS

hda3: 16GB free space

13+31+16=60

 

So resize hda2(D) to 31GB with partition magic.

* convert hda2(D) to Fat32 (or not..partition magic should do this without a problem)

* with partition magic delete hda3(e?) and create a 'primary' partion of 15GB

* format hda3(e?) linux.

* with partition magic and create a 'extended' partion of 1GB for swap & format that linux swap or dos.

 

Quote:

after this i boot from the cd to install linux however this is where i am confused. what option do i select in my situation for installing linux if i want to install it on e: ? will it automatically divide e: into the partitions it requires? and dual boot so i can continue using xp when i want to? i dont want to lose winxp. i know this question may have been asked before but i need to know specificaly how it would go for the above scenario? and i think it is better to ask then be sorry in the long run.....

Manual install will allow you to chose the correct partitions in mandrake install. I don't see that as a problem.

 

[idud 0]

Originally posted by jimf43:

Quote:

You need about 15GB for the Linux & another 1GB for the swap

15+1=16

 

What...????? 15 GB, what for? I only use 1,5 GB (10%) for Mandrake 10, and it's including some big packages like KDE, OpenOffice, Latex, the servers (apache, mysql, proftpd, ssh, telnet), and some multimedia (xmms, xine, mplayer, gimp, etc).

 

So, if you don't mind jim, please explain why we need that big of space, so our new friend here won't get more confused.

[jimf43 0]

Originally posted by idud:

Quote:

What...????? 15 GB, what for? I only use 1,5 GB (10%) for Mandrake 10, and it's including some big packages like KDE, OpenOffice, Latex, the servers (apache, mysql, proftpd, ssh, telnet), and some multimedia (xmms, xine, mplayer, gimp, etc).

 

So, if you don't mind jim, please explain why we need that big of space, so our new friend here won't get more confused.

 

If you look at the original post, meg was the one who originally said that he wanted to use 18GIG of disk space. I see nothing wrong with that. I'm sure that you do get away with 1.5GB but that's cutting it tight unless you're using another partition for file storage (purely a matter of preference). 15GB is just fine if he wants to allot the space, less if he doesn't need it. You're certainly better off with too much rather than too little. Personally, I have 40GB (out of 160) allotted to my Linux partition and I don't find it excessive. Anyway, the whole point of the calculations was to get him to make a road-map 'before' he got in trouble, not to cast it all in stone.

 

[danleff 0]

idud, read the quote that you noted from my post again. I stated EXISTING NTFS PARTITION. I did not suggest changing the previous NTFS partitions with Mandrake's partitioning tool. In fact, just the opposite.

 

If the user elects to keep the pre-exisiting NTFS partition and use the free space after it for the Mandrake install, you may get overlapping between the existing NTFS and the free space that Mandrake uses. This is a documented bug with RedHat Core II and previous XP installs, as well.

 

So, if the user elects to keep the pre-existing NTFS partition and use the free space at the end of the drive (NTFS is the last partition before the free space), there is a problem when Mandrake takes the free space and creates it's filesystem.

 

Interestingly enough, my issue was with a previous fat32 partition.

 

PartitionMagic and qtparted will fail to read the partitions on the drive. PartitionMagic will complain of a problem and mark the drive as "bad" being unable to correct the issue.

 

Qtparted will give you all kinds of strange, multiple partition layouts for the drive that do not make sense.

 

Some people, like myself, find that everything seems to work ok, but some people, who's XP install is on the previous NTFS partition, have reported failure of their XP install to work after the install.

 

The issue is to be cautious about such installs and to use only one partitioning tool to set your partitions, before the Mandrake install. Either set up all your partitons using one tool ahead of time, or, if you have a simple system (only 1 previous OS install), allow Mandrake only to do the work.

 

At this point, I would suggest using PartitonMagic to set the partitions ahead of time and use expert install to use the partiton that you created for Mandrake with PartitionMagic, as your install partition.

 

Just my experience with the current Mandrake release.

[idud 0]

Originally posted by danleff:

Quote:

idud, read the quote that you noted from my post again. I stated EXISTING NTFS PARTITION. I did not suggest changing the previous NTFS partitions with Mandrake's partitioning tool. In fact, just the opposite.

Yes, I know, and I didn't mean that you have suggested to change any NTFS. I just want to say that we have to be careful about caring NTFS with linux.

 

Quote:

PartitionMagic and qtparted will fail to read the partitions on the drive. PartitionMagic will complain of a problem and mark the drive as "bad" being unable to correct the issue.

You right again. My friend once successful installing Mdk-10 with ext3. But when he access his Winxp and run PMagic, it reports bad at linux partitions and offer him to fix it with PMagic. Unfortunately, my friend have more trust in "all about windows" so he click the button "fix", and... you know he lost all his linux.

 

Quote:

The issue is to be cautious about such installs and to use only one partitioning tool to set your partitions, before the Mandrake install. Either set up all your partitons using one tool ahead of time, or, if you have a simple system (only 1 previous OS install), allow Mandrake only to do the work.

 

At this point, I would suggest using PartitonMagic to set the partitions ahead of time and use expert install to use the partiton that you created for Mandrake with PartitionMagic, as your install partition.

That's all I wanted to say, set the partition before start installing Mdk, in what way? Find the safest.

 

Btw, danleff, all your infos open my horizon wider, thanx.

[Angeousa 0]

Hi I have kinda the same problem (I think)

 

I am new to Linux and one of my friend installed Mandrake on my computer, now I can't start partition Magic 8 bcuz It says that I have a partition problem

 

I want to make partition for win98Se, I wanna Uninstall Mandrake but I dunno how to do, shall I just remove the partition that Linux uses? Or can u help me with fixing the partition prob

 

Short:

 

Shall I remove Linux or can somebody help me fix the partition problem?

 

 

Please help

[klfd4 0]

here is a howto for a couple of different dists, inkl slack, debian, gentoo ++

 

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.p...linux+ati+howto

^this link is to the forum where it is discussed.

 

http://www.rage3d.com/content/articles/atilinuxhowto/Linux_ATI.html

^this link is to the howto

 

 

just so you know

 

über_T

[klfd4 0]

damn, wrong thread

sorry

[danleff 0]

You have a couple of options, assuming you have 1 drive in the system, which Mandrake resides on and you want to start from scratch. If you have XP installed with Mandrake and want to keep XP, see option #3, but take care!

 

WARNING: IF YOU HAVE A COMPAQ OR HP COMPUTER, WHERE WINDOWS OR ANOTHER OS IS ALREADY PRE-INSTALLED, TAKE CARE, AS THESE SYSTEMS HAVE A SMALL HIDDEN PARTITION WITH RECOVERY DATA ON THEM, WHICH MAY ALSO HAVE BIOS INFORMATION. SEE THE HP/COMPAQ WEBSITE FOR DETAILS.

 

MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE A COPY OF PARTITONMAGIC AND THE KEY CODE AVAILABLE IF YOU WIPE THE WHOLE DRIVE. OTHERWISE, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO REINSTALL PARTITONMAGIC OR USE IT AFTER A REINSTALL. IF YOU HAVE RECOVERY DISKS FOR PM, YOU SHOULD BE FINE WORKING FROM THE FLOPPIES, BUT YOU WILL STILL NEED THE ACTIVATION KEY TO RE-INSTALL PM TO THE HARD DRIVE LATER ON.

 

1. When PartitionMagic offers to fix the partition, choose no. See if you get it to open. You will see the partition marked as "bad." If you get to this point (assuming that you do want to wipe the partition/drive and start over) try to format the partiton or drive as fat32. This may fail. I have not tried it, as I don't want to wipe Mandrake 10, Well, not just yet.

 

2. Use the drive partitoning software for your make of hard drive to re-format the drive. Seagate and Maxtor, for example, have these utilities that will wipe and format the drive for you.

 

3. If you want to just try to uninstall Mandrake, use the install disk #1 to remove the Mandrake partition. At the command prompt, when the first install cd boots, type in "expert" (without the quotes)and proceed though the install process until you reach the partitioning window and tell Mandrake to remove the partition. Allow it to do so, then back out of the install.

 

Then try Partitionmagic and see if it recognizes the drive now, wihtout errors.

 

BEFORE DOING THIS (#3), BACK UP AND DATA THAT YOU NEED, IN ALL YOUR EXISTING PARTITIONS, IN CASE SOMETHING GOES WRONG. THIS DID WORK FOR ME IN A PRIOR RELEASE OF MANDRAKE, BUT DUE TO THE CHANGES IN THE PARTITONING SCHEME IN MANDRAKE THAT CAUSED THIS TO HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE, THERE MAY BE ISSUES, SINCE MANDRAKE PARTITIONING APPARENTLY CAUSED AN OVERLAPPING OF AJACENT PARTITON(S) IN THE FIRST PLACE. THERE IS A CHANCE THAT YOU WILL CORRUPT THE NTFS PARTITION, IF XP IS INSTALLED ON THE FIRST PARTITION.

 

 

 

 

[Angeousa 0]

I have a Compaq computer, I need help

[danleff 0]

What OS's do you have installed right now?

 

Was Windows pre-installed on your system?

 

Do you have the Compaq rescue disks?

 

Can you get the Mandrake install disks that your friend used to assist?

 

What version of Mandrake do you currently have running?