hard-disk partition confused

hello,

scenario:
i have a 40GB hard disk, partitioned into 2-20GBs each. I installed WinXP on the first partition and the second partition is formatted NTFS, so it appears in my windows explorer as another drive.....where i can save my own stuff. as such, i can format the first partition without having to move my files off the disk....

I would want to do such a thing on Linux.....im using RH9 and I tried such with the Raid too that comes with the installation CDs, but my PC couldnt boot after installation.....the error was something: cant fetch.....outside cylinders......

so I had to install it again and chose the "automatic partition option...

Pls i would need help on how to partition my hard-disk(manually) so I could use it like in the situation i described above...and have the second partition appear as a drive.

I read infos on LVM but its like thats used for assembling small HD quantities.

Toks

I don't know much about RAID so I can't say much on that error, but I have a similar setup like you want to achieve.

I have one 20GB "data" partition where I store all my "data" (anything from movies and music to software archives) and the rest of the disk is for operating systems which I can install and deinstall as I wish without affecting my main data.

I never used RedHat, but I imagine it gives you a choice at installation to either automatically partition or let you do it manually (but you already know that). So, you use whatever partition manager RedHat installer provides you with to partition your disk into a couple of partitions for your OS and one extra bigger for data. You select mount points of the first two to /home and / (root) and whatever you wish (example: /mnt/data) for the third one. That should do the job if you install on one disk. If you install over RAID that's beyond me, but on one disk it should work.

You can also just leave some empty space for your data partition and take care of it after the install by using a tool such as cfdisk which allows you to easily partition the disk.

EDIT: Oh and make sure you set the right filesystem. Not setting the right filesystem could cause problems. I recommend reiserfs for both /home and / (root) as well as your data partition, but you should have other choices such as XFS or ext2 and ext3 (better).

I hope any of this helps somewhat.

Daniel

thanks Libervisco for the suggestions,

A)during my install when i tried the automatic partitioning of RH, my HD was partitioned as follows
1) /swap, 500MB
2) /boot , 100MB
3) /

for my 20GB HD, the "/" was around 18,378MB in size and from the manual, "thats where all the other files are stored"

from your reply, can I still partition the "/" partition now that the install is accomplished?

B) for a manual partition, when I set the "/" at 5000MB, the remaining space on the HD was labelled "free space". is this the space for the Data you mentioned? now, if I were to uninstall RH/format my drive, will the stuff I save at "free space" be preserved, as in can it be seen as a different drive like i mentioned in my first post....the WinXP scenario?

if not, kindly assist with details on how I can partition the 20GB HD into two 10GBs each and then use one 10GB partition for Linux, while I can save my own data on the other 10GB.

thanks
Toks
toks

Hi Toks,

Raid should work fine in dual boot. You might have partitioned boot as raid. Use the following setup:

/boot : 100MB (non-raid)
swap: double the size of ram (raid or non-raid)
/ : your wish (raid)

Regards,
Digital.

hi digitalamar,

thanks for the reply...i was actually asking for how to partition the 20GB HD into two 10GBs each....

I guess your reply pertains to one partition of 10GB? what format will beused for the second 10GB (which I want to use to save my own files)

Toks