Partioning a Win2k machine for dual boot

[williee12]

Hey all,

I am trying to resize the Win2k partition so that I can install Mandrake 8.1. I've tried the partition resize utility included with the Mandrake installation discs, as well as Partition Magic 7.0 and both receive errors when attempting to resize the FAT32 Win2k partition. Is there something native to Win2k that disallows the resizing of its partition? That seems impossible to be true! If anyone has an idea on how I could partition this HD, I'd appreciate it much! Thanks.

Matt

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

Well fat32 is not really a native partition to W2K as such and doesn't have the relative sophistication of ntfs so I can't see why there should be any problem resizing from W2K with PQmagic or from the Mandrake partitioner. There is a variation called fat32x where the partition crosses the 1024 cyl boundary but that shouldn't cause a problem to PQMagic. How big is the drive and what does the partitioning look like ? If you do a 'partitioninfo' query with PQmagic and cut & paste the output I'll see if there looks to be anything odd.

Presumably there is free space within this fat32 partition. Fairly obviously ,you can't reduce the size of a partition if it is more or less full with files already.

Regards

 

[williee12]

Thanks for the speedy response! Well, the drive is only 6GB, so, that falls before the 1024 cyl boundary and has about 3GB free. Unfortunately, I borrowed the Partition Magic diskettes, and have since returned them, so I can't yet give any info. on the partition that Win2k takes up. Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Matt

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

You could boot the Mandrake install CD and when it stops for input do a ctl-alt-F2 to toggle to a root console (# prompt). From there do a 'fdisk -l /dev/hda' command (to list the partition table of /dev/hda - the first ide drive). Post that info instead. Do ctl-alt-F7 to go back to the previous screen or 'init 6' to reboot.

Does the resize actually start but fall-over or not start at all. Do you remember the PQmagic error number ?

Regards

 

[Guest_imported]

Can someone please explain the process to dual boot mandrake linux 8.1 onto a windows 2kpro machine? I have one 20gig drive that I can partition with partition magic if need be. Please explain in detail. Thanks in advance.

 

[ifincham]

Hi,



You don't have to use partition magic before the linux install - the tools included with the Mandrake install can do just about everything thats needed. However, some people prefer to do at least part of it with PQmagic because it 'talks' of C: & D: (etc.) drives so you can be fairly certain you are not damaging anything.



Either way, if your entire 20gb is already allocated as one or more fat/fat32/ntfs partitions then you need to free up space for the linux install. What I would recommend is to decide how much to give up and then resize the existing partition(s) to make the space to the 'right' of the windows partition(s). Then create an extended partition for all the freed space. Next within that create a small (twice physical ram) swap partition right at the end (far right) of the extended partition - i.e. a logical partition of maybe 256mb if you have 128mb. This would be type 'linux swap'. Then you can create another logical partition of type 'ext2' in the remaining space. These will be /dev/hda5 and /dev/hda6 (swap) in linux terminology.



When you do the install I'd recommend selecting 'expert' despite the warning. I think everything has a default anyway and if you don't select 'expert' you won't be given all the choices - e.g. where the bootloader goes !



When you get to the 'setup filesystems' part of the install you can select 'use existing partition' if you have already created one with PQmagic - otherwise select 'Custom Disk Partitioning'. See -->

http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/doc/81/en/user.html/dopartitiondisks.html

As long as you succeed in not zapping your W2K partition(s), the only other issue is booting. You can choose either :



(i) install lilo or grub in the computers master boot record (mbr) which is device /dev/hda in linux. If you do this you need to configure lilo/grub to boot W2k. Its not difficult. (

http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/LILO.html)

(ii) Use the W2K bootloader to boot both systems. In this case you must install lilo or grub in the linux partition (e.g. /dev/hda5) and not in the MBR. You then edit the c:\boot.ini to enable the M$ loader to chainload lilo or grub. (

http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/Linux+NT-Loader.html)

You can 'walk though' the entire process in the mandrake manual -->

http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/doc/81/en/user.html/p387.html

Hope this helps