I need help with suse....

[kevorocker 0]

Well ive looked all over the web and havent found anything that explains in detail (fit for an idiot like me anyways) about how to dual boot. i hvent done anything to the pc yet. i know how to download and burn the iso's, i just need to know how to reformatt a PART of my harddive. not all of it. can this be done from the boot up disk installation or do i need to preformat the part of the hard drive before installing. btw im running windows 98se and i have30+ gigs of hdd space left. i want atleast 15gigs formatted to linux only.

 

HELP!!!!!!!

[Dapper Dan 0]

Hi kevorocker and welcome! We'll get you through it. Before doing anything, there are three things you must do:

 

1. Back up all of your valuable Windows files.

2. Make sure you have made and tested a floppy disk that will get you in to Windows 98.

3. Thoroughly defrag Windows before attempting any partitioning.

 

Once those are out of the way, be prepared to screw something up. Try not to of course, but don't be surprised if it happens.

 

The best way to prepare your partitions is with Partition Magic if you can get a copy. It's the best partitioning utility I've found. If using Partition Magic, or another Windows partitioning utility:

 

1. resize Windows. I'd give it the first half of the hard drive.

2. create Linux partitions. I would use a /, a swap, and a /home partition in this type configuration...

 

/ swap /home

 

/ and /home should be about equal in size, with your swap about three times the size of your RAM.

 

PM will only allow you to format your / and /home partitions in either ext2 or ext3. Go with ext3. If you can't partition in Windows, then you'll have to do it from SuSE.

 

Once your partitions are set up the way you want them you can then begin the SuSE install. Take your time with it. it's pretty easy to understand, but make sure you have everything right before proceeding.

 

In the partitioning utility of SuSE, go ahead an re-format your / and the /home partition with RieserFS. So, when your done, it should look something like this in SuSE...

 

hda1 - Windows do not format

hda* - / format with ReiserFS

hda* - swap

hda* - /home format with ReiserFS.

 

Then proceed with the install. If you have any other questions, post them here and one of us will help.

[kevorocker 0]

Can you explain how to do it in suse? or does suse guide me through it pretty easily?

[Dapper Dan 0]

SuSE can do it all almost automatically. The good thing about SuSE is, it presents everything out for you to look over BEFORE you pull the trigger on the changes. So even if you tell it to do the partitioning automatically, you'll still have the chance of rejecting it if something doesn't look right before proceeding

 

In my opinion, it's better to partition from Windows if at all possible, but if you can't, the partitioning utility in SuSE should be able to do it for you in a satisfactory manner.

[llamapalooza489 0]

when you partition it with the Suse installer, does it erase all of your windows files?

[Dapper Dan 0]

No it doesn't. SuSE is good about protecting your Windows partitions, but I still wouldn't take the chance. Back up all files before attempting any partitioning and do a thorough defrag of Windows before starting.