partitioning +dualboot

[linchick]

Hey all,
I have partitioned my HDD 4-5 few times now and I still havent got it right. So now i would like to reformat and reinstall everything (sigh!! ) again. I do not intend to use partition magic coz I dont have access to it.

I would like to dual boot between windows98 and redhat 8.0 on a 40GB samsung HDD . I have an intel mobo D845HV, P4, 1.7Ghz, 40Gb, 128MB RAM.

I want to allocate 20Gb for windows
c:\=10GB
D:\=10GB
and 20GB for linux(/home=10GB).

I have a few questions b4 I start:
1) Last time I installed linux on my extended partition made by windows ,my windows got corrupted and my linux wouldnt boot ,though it was working fine for a few days.is it because Windows had a problem recognising the non-dos partitions?
linux gave me an error at boot time after it recognises my hda and hdd, init_special_inode:bogus imode(134135)
I wanted to partition 20GB each for windows and linux ,but
i ended up with windows recognising 30Gb (and 10 for linux) and redhat recognising 20GB each for linux and windows. I think the partitions overlapped.

2) Please mention how to partition using windows fdisk for the initial windows partition and what partitions I need to make with linux fdisk.

note:windows 98 can only make a single primary partition.

From my experience I think it is better to install GRUB in the linux root partition instead of the MBR.what other steps would I have to take if i wanted to boot without a boot floppy to get into linux. I remember seeing some options to be put in boot.ini,but funny, i cant see any boot.ini on my win98 . Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanx

[JohnT]

Note: You can have up to 4 Primary partitions.

Make two Primary partitions 20 gig's apiece. Make an extended partition in the first Primary partition of 10 gig's. Make the first Primary partition active. Reboot and format. Do your windows install(should be /dev/hda). When finished do your Linux install.(should be on /dev/hdc) Make a Linux bootdisk. At sometime if you need to make the Linux "/" partiton bootable, use cfdisk from the commandline and toggle the boot flag on your bootable partition. There are several way to dual boot, but if your looking for a way to do it with 98 and not mess with the MBR, you might want to look at this method. (http://linuxnewbie.org/nhf/Booting_Your_OS/Multiple_OS_Booting_Without_LILO.html)

Read over everything before you start and if you have questions come back.

[linchick]

Thanx but i still have a few doubts :

Firstly ,win98 will not allow me to make 2 primary partitions of 20Gb each ...remember that it allows me to make only 1 primary partition and the rest have to be extended logical!!
and since i will be installing win98 first i will be using the win98 fdisk to do the partitioning.

Make an extended partition in the first Primary partition of 10 gig's.
secondly,i doubt it is possible to make an extended partition inside a primary partition ?

Thirdly if i had to do what u told me too assuming the other two probs are solved, is this what u were suggesting ?
(c:\,d:\ ,swap,/home and / )

primary1- c:\ /dev/hda1 10GB
primary2- / /dev/hda2 9.5GB
primary3- /home /dev/hda3 10GB
primary4- extended /dev/hda4 10.5GB (2 logical)
d:\ /dev/hda5 10GB
swap /dev/hda6 500MB

ok so do i create a c:/ primary and then head onto linux to help me create the other partitions including a d:\ ,I dont see any otherway to do it ; if i do create an extended partition all my linux partitions will also have to be extended. correct me if i am wrong ? I just wanna be abs sure.

[retoon]

I would like to dual boot between windows98 and redhat 8.0 on a 40GB samsung HDD . I have an intel mobo D845HV, P4, 1.7Ghz, 40Gb, 128MB RAM.
Is your video shared memory? if it is, then I would like to make the small recommendation that you upgrade the amount of ram in your system. Red Hat 8.0 requires 128MB of ram minimum to run its gui, and they recommend 192MB for bearable use. Thats just on the side. As for dual booting with red hat. First delete all partitions on your hd. Boot off your win 98 cd, and type in run with cd support. (not neccesary, but nice to have). start fdisk, and delete all partitions noticeable. Create a primary partition and set it to active, and either tell it what percentage of space you need, or size partition you need. Then run the windows 98 setup off of the cd.(after reboot ofcourse). When it asks you what partition to use, designate the partition you created which should be fat32. Then once you have set windows up with all its bells and whistles, start on the RH8 install. Boot from the RH8 cd and when doing the graphical install, choose automatically partition. Select leave all partitions alone and use existing free space(or something similar to that), then continue. It will automatically use what ever is left on the HD for RH8 and use the ext3 file system (i think, if not ext2). RH8 makes it pretty easy to pull off a dual boot.

[retoon]

I forgot to mention. When everything is all said and done, the bootloader will display two options, Red Hat linux (2.4.18) and DOS. DOS is your windows boot.

[JohnT]

Scroll toward the bottom of the page for partioning info.............................................. ....

http://www.bootdisk.com/txtfiles/hdd.txt

[linchick]

choose automatically partition. Select leave all partitions alone and use existing free space(or something similar to that), then continue.

I would like to manually partition my HDD as
1) I want a seperate /home partition of 10GB to store my files
2) I also have to install an extended partition d:\



ok so do i create a c:/ primary and then head onto linux fdisk to help me create the other partitions including a d:\

Is this what u are suggesting ?

[retoon]

use windows fdisk to create your windows partitions. Just make your primary active ( C: ) 10gb, and while your at it make your extended partition underneath that. When under the windows install, just pick the primary partition. As far as partitioning under linux, manually, I haven't delved into that relm yet. Read the information on the links provided by johnt. Also, on another note, is your video shared ram?

[linchick]

hey ,

I truly appreciate u guys helping me out . Retoon, I dont think I would want to create an extended partition now as that would limit the num of partitions i can make later on in linux i.e if i make a 10gb extended partition now ,that will leave me with the choice of making only 2 more primary partitions for /, /home and swap.

I have just finished creating a 10gb c:\ . I will start my linux installation now and install the extended partitions and d:\ .

I dont want the partitions to overlap like last time because i installed linux on an extended partition created by windows and win98 refused to recognise it. So i ended up with a 30gb windows partition instead of a 20gb one and the rest is....filesystem corruption!!!!

I am not too sure about shared memory but this is the info i have .Lemme know about it.

Chipset: SiS305
Video Graphic Acceleration:
- PCI Bus, 128-bit, high level of 2D/3D performance
Memory:
- 32-MB SDRAM support, 64 bit memory data bus

[retoon]

That should be fine. Had it been shared video memory, you would notice a drop in performance. RH minimum ram requirements is 128mb, and they recommend 192. If it was shared video ram, you would have 128 minus the video ram.

[linchick]

Hmmm.... gonna start my linux partitioning today .But i am still a lil sceptical.

1) how does windows recognise the extended partition ( d:\ ) made by linux?

2) Is all the partition info written into the MBR irrespective of which OS does the partitioning?

3) what about the option writing the partition info at the boot sector of the partition ? will windows ever access the boot partition of other partitions ?

In short ,i wanna know what info is written on the MBR and what info is written into the boot sector /Extended MBR of each partition . Is the info duplicated ?

[JohnT]

http://www.bootdisk.com/txtfiles/hdd.txt