Jump to content

Partitioning a drive for linux


Marc

Recommended Posts

Hey,

Lets assume that I don't have partition magic for a moment (I don't ;)). So what would be the best method of re-partitioning a windows XP disk so that I can have a dual boot with linux?

Any fancy free/cheap software out there that will do it? And fdisk doesn't count... :P

Thanks

Marc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi!

Some Linux installers have the ability to resize ntfs-partitions without data-loss. So you won't need any partition magic or something similar. I think you will have to defragment your partitions before resizing. (Never did this myself)

Note: I heard that Mandrake 9.1 doesn't warn you if the partitions can't be resized without data loss.

For an overview, which distribution can resize ntfs and which not, take a look at http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsre...ze2.html#distro If your distribution isn't listed, this site also mentions a "hard" way to resize the partition using the ntfsresize program you can download.

Cheers

Frank

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are several tools for linux for the drive partitioning. It's a fdisk, DiskDruid for RedHat, DiskDrake for Mandrake and other. All is usefull. But I don't recommend to use DiskDrake from MDK 10 because you have a big chance to loose your data. I'm not sure what tool can resize NTFS partitions but you can test it :) And don't forget to backup your data!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It depends, even if you have PartitionMagic, resizing NTFS paritions is very risky.

FAT32 is no problem at all, there are a few freeware tools (even included with some Linux distributions) available.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...