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Tashtego
n00b
Joined: 05 Oct 2004
Posts: 15
Location: Australia
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 Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:08 am Post subject: Newbie advice - worried about Windows partition... |
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Currently, I'm running Mandrake 10 on one hard drive and Windows 98 on another, using LILO as a bootloader.
I'd like to install Gentoo on my current-Mandrake partition, keeping the Windows 98 drive as is. I've been through the install docs for Gentoo and can get how to configure/partition the Gentoo Linux drive - will this affect the Windows 98 drive? |
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Pink
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Joined: 24 Jul 2003
Posts: 1062
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| Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:17 am Post subject: |
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It won't affect your windows partition at all - providing you don't accidently delete it when you fdisk.
You said | Quote: | | and can get how to configure/partition the Gentoo Linux drive |
Did you mean "can" or did you mean "can't" get how to partition it?
Lets say you have hard drive 1 with Gentoo on it, I would partition it somewhat like this:
hda1: /boot partition
hda2: swap partition
hda3: / (root) parition
Your windows hard drive would be:
hdb1: windows.
Now this assumes your windows hdd is the 'slave' or second hard drive and the linux hdd is your 'master' or primary hdd.
Not sure I am really helping but the simple fact is that linux will not affect your windows drive. You need to put an option in lilo or grub to allow you to boot into it but that is it.
If you have any specific questions then please ask, that's what we are here for but the install docs cover it pretty well, take your time, read them thoroughly and see if you understand what is happening before you commit your fdisk partitioning.
HTH  |
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SaadatSaeed
n00b
Joined: 13 Dec 2003
Posts: 14
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| Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 1:38 pm Post subject: Just be careful |
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Just be careful.... my hda1 was windows XP with a huge collection of irreplacable family photos and little backups. Then I put hda2 hda3 and hda4 as my gentoo partiions boot, swap and root. However, the documentation talked about these drives as hda1 hda2 and hda3 ... so somewhere down the line while formatting I accidently formatted my hda1 which was windows and an angry wife just appeared and banned me from my computer for a few months or so. She just likes things simple like XP and a picture viewer (picasa is her favourite) and doesn't like exploring and wasting too much time on computers.................. so just be careful eh!
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matt_w
Apprentice
Joined: 17 Nov 2003
Posts: 233
Location: UK
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| Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 5:19 pm Post subject: Re: Newbie advice - worried about Windows partition... |
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| Tashtego wrote: | Currently, I'm running Mandrake 10 on one hard drive and Windows 98 on another, using LILO as a bootloader.
I'd like to install Gentoo on my current-Mandrake partition, keeping the Windows 98 drive as is. I've been through the install docs for Gentoo and can get how to configure/partition the Gentoo Linux drive - will this affect the Windows 98 drive? |
post your current HD setup and I can guide you form there, if you'd like. |
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Tashtego
n00b
Joined: 05 Oct 2004
Posts: 15
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 11:20 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for all the help so far...
Hardware specs...
The PC is Celeron 700 with 520 RAM. hda is about 40 G and hdb is about
10 G.
I'm having trouble working out the current partitioning - when I do 'df
-a' I get the following output:
Filesystem: /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1
1K-blocks: 5542276
Used Available: 4839572
Use% 92%
Mounted on /
- Sub-bits, each with a value of zero:
/proc/bus/usb
/dev
/sys
/dev/pts
Filesystem: /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part6
1K-blocks: 32676936
Used Available: 16430608
Use% 51%
Mounted on /home
- Sub-bits, each with a value of zero:
/home
/mnt/cdrom
/mnt/cdrom2
/mnt/floppy
/mnt/hd
/mnt/windows
Which isn't the /dev/hdx stuff I was expecting. Through Linuxconfi,
I've got this stuff:
Source - /dev/hda1
Mount Point - /
FsType - ext3
Size - 5498M
Partition Type - Linux(83)
Source - /dev/hda5
Mount Point - swap
FsType - ext3
Size - 243M
Partition Type - Swap(83)
Source - /dev/hda6
Mount Point - /home
FsType - ext3
Size - 32420M
Partition Type -Linux(83)
... but doesn't tell me about /dev/hd2-4 or /dev/hdb (which I assume is
Windows..)
Any help getting the right setup partitioning prior to Gentoo would be
Appreciated. I think the install guide said I should put at least 3G in the swap partition for easy compiling. |
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Pink
Veteran
Joined: 24 Jul 2003
Posts: 1062
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| Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2004 7:15 am Post subject: |
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Easy way to find out your partitions is to do:
then a:
Then you will see exactly what you have, just use the arrow keys to go to quit when you have written it down - don't change anything yet.
You could post the output of the above commands if you want help.
You must read the install manual carefully, swap is, as a rule of thumb, double the RAM, but personally I have never had it over 512MB and I have always had 512 MB of RAM.
The 3G you are talking about probably refers to your temp directories where progs are compiled. If you have / (root) on, lets say at least 10G you will be absolutely fine.
Try the above and see what you get becasue until you or we know what you have then no real advice can be given. To be honest the only thing you really need to know is where your windows partition is so it is not overwritten or foramtted by mistake (you are going to re format all the rest so it doesn't really matter what else is there...)
HTH |
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Tashtego
n00b
Joined: 05 Oct 2004
Posts: 15
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2004 11:53 am Post subject: |
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According to cfdisk for /dev/hda, I get:
Name - /dev/hda1
Flags: Boot
Part Type: Primary
FS Type: Linux ext3
Size - 5765.9M
Name - /dev/hda5
Flags:
Part Type: Logical
FsType - Linux Swap
Size - 244.99M
Name - /dev/hda6
Flags:
Part Type: Logical
FsType - Linux ext3
Size - 33995.09
And for /dev/hdb, I get:
Name - /dev/hdb1
Flags: Boot
Part Type: Primary
FsType - Win95 FAT32 LBA
Size - 10001.95
(not sure what Mandrake did with /dev/hda2-4)
... so it's pretty clear that /dev/hdb is windows - so I just get fdisk to avoid that during the Gentoo install... right? And make sure that the swap partition has about 2G?
I think I'm getting the hang of this! |
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Pink
Veteran
Joined: 24 Jul 2003
Posts: 1062
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| Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2004 1:12 pm Post subject: |
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Uhuh, avoid /dev/hdb.
I'm not sure why you insist on having swap so high? As I said in my last post, as a rule of thumb it should be twice your RAM. You have 512MB RAM, so theoretically you should have 1GB of swap. I think that is far, far too much and you will rarely use it anyway (or at all, I don't think I have ever used my swap on any of my machines or laptops) so I would personally recommend 512MB of swap. That is IMO, but you seriously don't need 2 or 3GB!!
Before you do anything else, read the install intructions carefully. they are complete, they do have all the info you need. Just take your time and you'll be fine.
Good Luck |
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Tashtego
n00b
Joined: 05 Oct 2004
Posts: 15
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 3:05 am Post subject: |
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[quote="PickledOnion"]I'm not sure why you insist on having swap so high?
/quote]
Brain fuzz - I was thinking of the root partition instead and didn't chew through your last post properly. Thanks for the advice! |
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Pink
Veteran
Joined: 24 Jul 2003
Posts: 1062
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| Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:15 am Post subject: |
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Hey, no problem
Just come back if you get any difficulties. If it is a seperate issue start a new thread. |
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Installing Gentoo
