I Need Some Help with Partitions

[JKwingsfan]

Ok, I want to install Fedora, however, RedHat's guide to creating a dual-boot system is foggy at best (useless at worst).

So, I just want to load Fedora onto my machine which currently runs WinXP, what's the easiest way to do that?

[spoon!]

You first need to resize the Windows partition(s) with a program like Partition Magic, DiskDrake, GParted, QtParted, etc. to leave enough space for the Linux partitions. The installer should be able to place partitions correctly on this free space. The installer should also allow to set up the bootloader (GRUB) to have options to boot to the Windows partitions. The Fedora Core installation guide should have information on how to do that.

[JKwingsfan]

OK, so I have to make a partition on Windows, then when I'm installing Linux I what?

[smolloy]

OK, so I have to make a partition on Windows, then when I'm installing Linux I what?

No. You have to resize the windows partition.

To explain -- at the moment your hard drive probably only has one partition on it (I'm guessing, but it's a reasonable guess), and that's the one that windows is sitting on.

Now you can't put another operating system on the same partition as windows, cos windows (and most other operating systems) does not play well with others. So you will have to shrink the size of the partition which contains windows to make room for another partition. It is on this other partition that you will want to install linux.

Understand??

You'll probably want to do a bit of searching around (Google is King ) for advice on partition sizes, types, etc. and to see which setup will work best for you. But stick with it -- it's not as scary as it sounds!

Good luck

[a thing]

Both above forgot the first step: defragment your drive on Windows. then resize, just to be safe.

[ceal105]

chack this out!

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/topic-55323.html

i think it will be usefull

[code_killer]

Ok my question is the same. lets just see if I got this right. Now for example,

I have a copy of linux that was just handed to me. Fedora. I Install PM and lets say I give XP 40Gig. That leaves the other 40 gig free for linux? I would want to install it fully on as much space as possible. Now when I pop in Fedora is it just a matter of following the prompts to install Linux on the that 40gig partition free drive. I would like to dual boot first before I switch fully.

So is that right?


This is my first post, and new to this forum.

Thanks.

[smolloy]

That all sounds right, but there is one other thing I would do with PM. In the free 40Gig I would use PM to create a "swap" partition that is about twice the size of your RAM (but there's not much point making it bigger than 1Gig). Put this right at the start of the free space.

As far as I remember this is relatively easy to do in PM.

And as "a thing" reminder me, defragging is extremely important!!

[a thing]

It will be really easy to select the partition(s) to use with Fedora (and just about any distro).

[JKwingsfan]

Alright, I have a single partition drive (I know that much) so lemme get this straight, I don't have to take any steps prior to installation (aside from defragging), and while installing I set the partitions?