WinXP/Gentoo Dualboot Partitioning

[nipper]

Hi-

I have a box with WinXP (NTFS) pre-loaded, that I would like to dual-boot with Gentoo. I've read alot of postings here and elsewehere about nightmares with dual-booting with XP, so I want to get a sanity check before I dive into it this weekend. I've done dual-boot before with Win2K/98 on RedHat and Mandrake, but never with Gentoo and never with NTFS, so I'm a bit clueless.

Here's how I THINK it should be partitioned:

/dev/hda1 = Windows (NTFS) - marked as bootable in the partition table
/dev/hda2 = /boot - marked bootable in the partition table
/dev/hda3 = Linux Swap
/dev/hda4 = Gentoo (ext3), to be mounted on /
/dev/hda5 = Share partition for XP/Linux (FAT32)

Does this make sense? Also, do I need to use a Windows partitioning tool to resize the NTFS partition? I read somewhere that the linux tools that come with the distro cannot be used, as they do not play with NTFS. If so, any recommendations for a free tool?

Anything else I should watch out for?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[bsm2001]

The only thing i can think of is that fdisk and cfdisk will only accept one bootable flag so leave the win xp as bootable.
other than that have fun:p :D

If you have mdk use that to do the partitioning
/boot ext2
/reiserfs

[nipper]

Thanks for that -- so /boot should NOT be marked bootable? And, I can use fdisk to resize NTFS?

[serz]

The partitions looks good to me.

As for a free tool resize NTFS partition, you may want to search at download.com (www.download.com). Partition Magic is paid, and I'm not sure if there's a trial or something that lets you do this.

No, you can't use fdisk to resize NTFS.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by nipper
Also, do I need to use a Windows partitioning tool to resize the NTFS partition? I read somewhere that the linux tools that come with the distro cannot be used, as they do not play with NTFS. If so, any recommendations for a free tool?


Some of the later distro versions include ntfsresize of which will resize a NT/W2K/XP ntfs partition.

You can likely download 'ntfsresize' by itself. See if Gentoo has it available.