[SOLVED] Shrink current system

[zhshqzyc]

Hi, I am installing fedora 14 on a windows xp machine. Then a message box pop out:

sda1(ntfs,0MB)
Shrink partition to size (in MB): 18046

I tried to increase sda1's size but failed. It always is 0 and can not changed even slide the scrool bar.
The shrink partion size can be changed but I don't know what is the best size.

I haven't shrink it because I worry that the data will be lost.

Thanks for help.

[MikeTbob]

Hi there,
Before you go any further, please tell us what you are using for resizing the partitions. Does your machine meet the system requirements? Make sure you boot into Windows safe mode and check disk, defrag, back up, back up, back up.
Boot up any LiveCD and post the output of this command:

fdisk -l

That's a lowercase L, not a 1

[zhshqzyc]

Nothing after

fdisk -l

[MikeTbob]

Nothing after

fdisk -l

Did you try login as root or use sudo?

[devils casper]

You need administrative privileges to execute fdisk command.
Gain root privileges using su - command.

su -
fdisk -l

[zhshqzyc]

I guess that the unallocate space is too small, I used a free partition software to resize the partition. So the unallocate space is around 20GB.

Then I discard "Shrink current system" method, select free space method. It looks good.

Another question, when I start the machine, the screen asks me to hit any key to enter the boot menu. But the period is too short, I can't react it quickly then the system goes to the Fedora. Can I control the time?

Thanks.

[devils casper]

You have to edit /boot/grub/grub.conf file.
Open it with root privileges and increase value of default. It's time in seconds.

su -
nano /etc/boot/grub.conf

Set default value to 10 or 15.

default=10

Press Ctrl+X and Y to save file.

[zhshqzyc]

I uses vi editor and click :w. Why no response?
What is the popular editor? Is vi too old?

[devils casper]

Which version of vi are you using? I prefer nano and vim editors to edit confs.

[zhshqzyc]

I don't know how check the version of vi.