Partitioning, again

[Doomgaze]

Ok. Finally got my shiny new 80 GB hard drivre (not the biggest, but it's more than I need) andinstalled it as the slave to the original hard drive.


Now. Windows XP didn't recognize the unpartitioned space, but the device manager shows the drive as being there. The HD DID come with a partition tool, but the only thing it will do is put the entire thing on NTFS. I also tried using the partition thingy on the XP boot disk, but, again, it won't let me do anything but an NTFS. That's not what I want. I want to have a fairly large FAT 32 drive for storing my files, and leave the rest open so i can put on red hat. I'm also going to reinstall XP, since it's been kind of BROKEN lately.

Any idea what's wrong?

[crono_logical]

WinXP will read, but not create, FAT32 partitions larger than 32 GB, since they're inefficient for most uses.

You should be able to partition a drive in XP while XP is running - go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management, and in Disk Management, you can right-click the disk in the bottom diagram and create partitions there. It still won't make a FAT32 partition bigger than 32 GB though, but you can see if the drive is there or not, and it's status. It's probably all marked as unpartitioned space if you do check under WinXP. You want something like Partition Magic if you want to be able to create FAT32 partitions any size up to their technical maximum of 4 TB whilst under Windows.

Otherwise maybe install RedHat first, and try partitioning from either linux, or during the linux installation. I don't know if Linux refuses to create FAT32 drives bigger than 32 GB or not.

[Yamaneko]

I saw this while rummaging through tweakxp.com and found it interesting. I've never tried it before, but it could work.

[Doomgaze]

Ok, I can live with a 30 or so GB partition. I might just make a second one for music and movies,y ou know...


Ok. Let's say we have 20 GB or so left for Red Hat. How should I parition that?

And should I reinstall XP first, or install Linux first? Or does it matter?

[crono_logical]

Originally posted by Yamaneko
I saw this while rummaging through tweakxp.com and found it interesting. I've never tried it before, but it could work.

You're not "tricking" WinXP into doing anything - it can handle FAT32 partitions that large fine. I have an 80 GB and a 128 GB FAT32 partitions in my PC. It just refuses to make new ones that large because of efficiency issues when storing large numbers of small files on a partition that large. Now if that page was about how to actually create ones that big from WinXP (other than with Partition Magic), then it might have been interesting

Originally posted by Doomgaze
Ok. Let's say we have 20 GB or so left for Red Hat. How should I parition that?

And should I reinstall XP first, or install Linux first? Or does it matter?

I'd install XP first, since Linux has better multi-boot capabilities. Installing XP second would make it troublesome to get back into Linux again the first time afterwards.

As for partitioning the space for Linux, I guess someone like Unne could answer it better than me, if he's around

[Dr Unne]

Definitely install Windows first, because it b0rks your MBR and you'll have to install GRUB or LILO again afterwards anyways if you install Linux first.

[Endless]

Red Hat (RH9 at least, and Fedora C1, since it's the same installation tool) comes with a partition tool that will let make them exactly what you need or use the free (unpartitioned space), with the option of letting RH auto partitioning for you that unused space. It's easy to use, really.

[Doomgaze]

So the auto-partition on Red Hat will not to, say, write over Windows? I'm not really up on the linux filesystem, so I don't know what I need for swap files and where operating system files go and whatnot.

And I only have Red Hat 8.0. 56k modem makes it kind of hard to keep up with this things, you know? If that's a REAL problem, I think I could download the newer version at school, but that's not for a few weeks.

And let's say I do that later, can I just upgrade, or would it need a fresh install?

[Peegee]

Unne saying b0rk both startles and upsets me in a strange and wonderful manner.

Lots of partitions is good. More partitions = less likelihood of insane fragmentation

[crono_logical]

I never defragment my 80 GB partition

[Endless]

Originally posted by Doomgaze
So the auto-partition on Red Hat will not to, say, write over Windows? I'm not really up on the linux filesystem, so I don't know what I need for swap files and where operating system files go and whatnot.

And I only have Red Hat 8.0. 56k modem makes it kind of hard to keep up with this things, you know? If that's a REAL problem, I think I could download the newer version at school, but that's not for a few weeks.

And let's say I do that later, can I just upgrade, or would it need a fresh install?

I'd assume they haven't radically changed the install tool between 8 and 9, so the partitioning tool should work the same. If I remember correctly, you are first asked between:
- use all the space
- use all the free space
- let me see wtf I'm doing

And after choosing the third, you can let rh auto partition the empty space (I think it creates /swap, /, /home and /boot, I can't remember though) and you'll see what space is used for what, then you can still add whatever you want (like if you want /home/doom on its own partition). then when you're done, you ask to go to the next step and it will ask you to confirm before writing the partition table.

As for updating to RH9, I don't know if it's really worth it since RH is stopping the maintenance on RH7 and 8 on Dec 31st, 2003, and on RH9 by the end of April, 2004. I guess that at that time they will have a fairly good update tool to jump from RH7/8/9 to Fedora Core 1 (2 if it's out then).

[Citizen Bleys]

A good partition scheme when you're just starting out looks like this:

Swap (Amount of physical ram x 1.5; so if you have 512 MB of RAM, you want a 768 MB swap partition. Actually, I think the rule is different for large amounts of RAM, but I'm not sure how, so if it were me, I'd just use the old rule)

/boot - 100 MB. You'll never need more than 100 MB in your /boot partition, even if you're compiling your own kernel and want to keep 2 or 3 archived kernels to go back to in case you pooch your compile.

/ - the rest of the available space.

If you were running a web server, I'd put /var/www/html on a separate partition, too--that way if you ever pooch your system UTTERLY and need to do a complete reinstall, you can wipe your / and /boot partitions, reinstall the OS, and then just remount your old /var/www/html and your server will be back up and running in no more time than it takes to do the dratted reinstall. File servers tend to do the same thing with /home.