<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Partitioning</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.63 "><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="Linux Installation Strategies mini-HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="The concepts" HREF="x97.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Installation" HREF="x204.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECT1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >Linux Installation Strategies mini-HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="x97.html" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="x204.html" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="AEN164" >6. Partitioning</A ></H1 ><P >Now we are ready to actually partition the hard disk. First make a DOS boot disk (type <B CLASS="COMMAND" >format a: <TT CLASS="OPTION" >/s</TT ></B > at the DOS prompt or in DOS). Put the following three files in the disk, <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >fips.exe</TT >, <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >restorrb.exe</TT > and <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >errors.txt</TT >. Defragment your hard disk – this puts all the data at the beginning leaving enough space for <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >Fips</SPAN > to create a new partition from. If you use <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >Norton SpeedDisk</SPAN > select the unfragment free space option. <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >Norton</SPAN > usually puts data at the end of the disk and this will prevent <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >Fips</SPAN > from creating a new partition. Run <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >Scandisk</SPAN > and reboot using the bootdisk you just created.</P ><P >Type <B CLASS="COMMAND" >fips</B > at the prompt and <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >Fips</SPAN > will show you your partition table with a warning about partition table inconsistency. If your disk has more than <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >1024</TT > cylinders its usually safe to ignore this warning. Next <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >Fips</SPAN > will ask you is you want to proceed – the program is extremely meticulous – answer yes obviously and when prompted to save a backup of your partition table and boot sector answer yes – this step is absolutely vital as it allows you to restore your hard disk to its unpartioned single partition state should anything go wrong. It also comes in handy if you want to uninstall Linux or resize your Linux partition. It doesn't matter what happens to the new partition in the meantime, if you have the back up you can restore your hard disk to its original unpartioned state. This reversible operation will work in all circumstances but one; if you format your original (Windows) partition which was split to make space for Linux in the meantime, the original <SPAN CLASS="ACRONYM" >FAT</SPAN > is overwritten with a new and smaller one and the restore operation will not work.</P ><P >After making the backup you will be presented with a screen with <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >3</TT > numbers, the first represents your original partition – notice it is at its smallest size, <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >Fips</SPAN > has allocated all free space in the hard disk to the new partition, this is the default behavior. The second column shows the cylinder info which will be the guide for those who plan to use <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >Lilo</SPAN >. The third shows the size of the new partition you are going to create – it is at its largest size. Use the arrow keys to resize the partition, you would just have to reduce the size of the new partition since it is at its maximum to a size you want. For <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >Lilo</SPAN > users the new partition has to be below the <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >1024</TT > cylinder mark, <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >1000</TT > is a reasonable beginning for the new partition. After you are satisfied with the size of your new partition press enter, <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >Fips</SPAN > will ask you to confirm and write the new partition table.</P ><P >Reboot your system. Remember to change the <SPAN CLASS="ACRONYM" >BIOS</SPAN > settings to boot from the hard disk or you will end up rebooting with the floppy. Double click <SPAN CLASS="GUIICON" >My Computer</SPAN > and you will see the result of all the hard work, there will be a new drive labelled <I CLASS="MEDIALABEL" >D</I > alongside the original <I CLASS="MEDIALABEL" >C</I >. Don't touch <I CLASS="MEDIALABEL" >D</I >, run <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >scandisk</SPAN > on your original partition (<I CLASS="MEDIALABEL" >C</I >) – hopefully there will be no errors – and at this point you are ready to install Linux.</P ><P >Some of the Linux documentation mistakenly ask you to delete the newly created partition using Windows <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >Fdisk</SPAN >. Do not commit that blunder because if you do the Linux partitions will show up in <SPAN CLASS="GUIICON" >My Computer</SPAN > when you reboot after installing Linux and since Windows obviously cannot read these drives and the <SPAN CLASS="ACRONYM" >ext2</SPAN > filesystem, using <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >Explorer</SPAN > and acessing your hard disk in Windows will become a time consuming and destabilizing affair. So don't do it.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="x97.html" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="x204.html" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >The concepts</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Installation</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >