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miskatonic
11-22-2002, 08:59 PM
Hullo all. In my comp, I have 2 hd's: one is 25GB and is all Win98, and the other is 80GB and I want to try to install both Linux and FreeBSD on it, and have a partition that is just for general data storage and can be used by any of the 3 OS's. 1) This can be done, right? AND 2) Can someone point me toward a tutorial or how-to on how to go about the process, maybe recommend partition sizes? (PS right now I have Mandrake 8.0 on the 80-GB and Win98 on the 25-GB, and my problem is that Windows can't see the drive that Linux is on, and so can't get to any of the files on it. Linux, on the other hand, can find anything on the Win drive. Frustrating.) I checked the NHF's but none of them really have the info I need...
the only way this could work with windows is if you format it in fat/fat32 since youre using win98. 98 can't read linux file systems or ntfs but linux can read/write to those. as far as a tutorial, i have no idea where youd find one
rustskull
11-22-2002, 09:37 PM
dump your current fstab and post, so we can see what you're talking about.
My first guess would be to not worry too much about it unless the 25GB drive is stuffed with windows specific stuff. Clear some space and just use that...I like the easy routes. :^) If you need more space, just make sure to leave 60GB of that 80GB unallocated to play around with. You can just add larger partitions as you need on the 80Gb drive.
If you like, you can easily fit a M$ compatible partition on there of 40GB if you don't care about efficiency. All your linux stuff can be native, linux is unbiased as to which fstype you initialize your partitions as, so it's pretty simple to have a data partition that everyone can access naturally.
Just remember that it's easier to go to bigger partitions if you fill one up as opposed to trying to repartition a big partition if you find later you need to slice one up for some reason or another.
Until you figure out your data needs, IMO I would just make big enough for your current data + 10GB on the big drive and install however you want the other OS's. If I was going to be anal about it, I would make all my boot and system partitions on the 25GB drive and just leave the 80GB sliced up for /var /opt /tmp /home and the like, plus some windows native /share or some such. That way if system drive goes out, your data is safe. And unless your 80GB totally craps out, odds are you'd be able to recover some of the data if it crashes...which is even less likely because system is not running on it. ALso allows you to optimize the 80GB drive for data access.
IMO I definitely would not allow windows to be able to write to your system partitions (via putting linux on m$ compatible fstype), although I wouldn't put it bast the boys in redmond to already be working on a XP component that can see those other non-m$ partitions and induce subtle corruptions in them. After all, they do a pretty good job on their own software...bit rot!
:^D
-rust
michaelk
11-22-2002, 09:47 PM
You are correct windows can not read linux or freebsd partitions. However both linux and freebsd can read/write to FAT32.
How big? How much data do you need to share?
miskatonic
11-22-2002, 10:42 PM
Well, I have almost 15GB of Mp3's alone, and they're taking up more than half the Windows drive just b-cuz that's where they have to b for both OS's to b able to access them, and it may b a looong time b4 I get the external drive that I want to store my music on (a plan for the future). I figured a big partition on the 80GB drive, for just data, that all the OS's have access to would work well.