Redhat 7.3 doens't see existing partition table 1

[McBugzz]

Using Partition Magic 7.0 I partitioned my 40 GB HDD like this:

15 mb for \boot
32 GB for windows
500 MB for \swap
7 GB for \root

I installed Linux Mandrake 8.1 with no problems.

Then, when I decided to install Red Hat 7.3, I couldn't. It said it couldn't see my partition table or smth like that.

Anyway, am I supposed to crush my HDD now and start from scratch?

 

[fluid11]

You don't need PQ to set up a Linux/Windows dual boot. I'm not sure why you are getting that message, but try wiping out the partitions you created for Linux and restart the Linux installation. You can create the partitions during the RHL installation.


ChrisP

 

[wmg]

As a side to this - is 15Mb sufficient for \boot?

Would it be a good idea for me to make it a little bigger (I'm looking at doing the same thing as McBugzz).

Ta.
wmg

 

[fluid11]

I use anywhere from 20-50MB, depending on if your going to be doing any kernel development.


ChrisP

 

[wmg]

Oops - sorry - I should have said /boot I guess! ;-)

Ok - I was thinking more like 50Mb - I just wanted to make sure I had enough for 'in case ofs'.

I'm having to replace my 15Gb primary drive with a 30Gb one due to and intermittant head failure.

I did have two 7Gb partitions taking up the whole disk (one for Linux, one for WinXP) which worked well since the bootstrap of both Os's needs to be on the first 8Gb of the drive.

I am trying to decide whether to have a 7Gb partition for XP first, a 512mb swap part at the end and then ext3 for the rest or if I should do the /boot thing and divide the disk more equally between the two OS'es. I think the latter might be better as it was getting fairly on the 7Gb XP partition.

;-)

 

[fluid11]

"I did have two 7Gb partitions taking up the whole disk (one for Linux, one for WinXP) which worked well since the bootstrap of both Os's needs to be on the first 8Gb of the drive." --> I never heard of this. One of my workstations here is a XP/RHL dual boot. The XP partition is 30GB and the rest of the space (another 30GB) is Linux partitions.

Install XP first (the partition size can be whatever you need), and then Linux second. The /boot partition should be created first. Try to put any swap partitions in the middle of your hard disk for quicker access whenever possible. If you still want to go with 7GB dedicated to Linux, go with something like this for a simple workstation....

/boot - 50MB
<swap> - 512MB
/ - 6GB (or whatever is left)


ChrisP

 

[wmg]

Wow - now that's interesting! I had attempted to configure 10Gb for WinXP and the remainder for linux on that 15gb drive but was unable to get linux to boot - it was then that I tried putting the /boot partition on the disk first (at the front) then Xp, then Linux - and that worked ok.

I guess I assumed from that that linux (or some part of the boot process - LILO for example) needed to be within the first 8Gb - just like Nt/2k/XP needed.

Obviously, my assumption was quite incorrect.

When I get the 30Gb drive, I'll have a muck about with different combinations and see if I can get it to work.

Thanks Chris!

 

[wmg]

Oh - thanks for the swap location tip too!

 

[fluid11]

Maybe the 8GB limit is a limitation of your BIOS?

I always install the bootloader (LILO or GRUB) into the MBR, so I've never had to deal with that. Windows OS's install the bootloader into the MBR by default, but with Linux, you have the option to install it into the MBR or the first part of the disk.


ChrisP

 

[wmg]

Yeah - I always put LILO into the MBR too - mostly because it just looks way nicer than the NT one! ;-)

I tried GRUB but it seemed to take an awfully long time to start up so I went back to using LILO as it was quicker.

Good point about the BIOS - it may very well be that.

Thanks again.

 

[wmg]

FYI - I did a grub install this time and don't have a big time lag which is groovy!

Thanks again for your help Chris!