Need help with FAT32 formatting

hollow point · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 4:35 am Post subject: Need help with FAT32 formatting

I was trying to make myself a FAT32 partition for Linux and Windows to share. I used Partion Magic in Windows to chop off a big unused piece of my /root. So now I have 25GB of unallocated space that I can't figure out how to partition.

Output of fdisk:

texas1emt · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 7:02 am Post subject:

From your fdisk output, here's what I am finding:

/dev/hda1 --> NTFS (for WinXP)
/dev/hda2 --> Linux (boot, I assume)
/dev/hda3 --> Linux Swap (duh)
/dev/hda4 --> Linux root

So are you saying you cut up hda4 into two pieces? If you did, then you're going to have unused hard drive space. For some funky reason (which I haven't been able to find out) you can't have more than 4 primary partitions on each disk. I believe you can have 4+ logical partitions, but not primary.

I had the same idea as you, to make a spot where windows and linux could both play and enjoy the excitement of hard-drive-ness, but eventually I bought an external enclosure and a hard drive and did it that way.
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Boris27 · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 9:28 am Post subject:

Yup. You can only have 4 primary partitions on a drive. Old school limitations.

To have more, one of your primaries must be remade as an extended partition. Extended partitions can hold extra "logical" partitions.
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hollow point · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 2:19 pm Post subject:

That's what I thought. My Idea is to go into Windows and delete my swap partition. Then make an extended partition with the big unused block. My only concern is how do I get back my swap? Keep in mind that Partition Magic can format with ext2, ext3, etc.
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texas1emt · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 5:17 pm Post subject:

Arg, I am not sure on the specifics on that. I am not sure if linux's root/swap partitions can be on an extended partition rather than primary. I've never run them as such, always primary.

I do know for SURE that you need to have WinXP's (hda1) and your boot (hda2) partition as primary. If they're not, I think you might have some boot-up issues.
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M. Hayden - San Antonio, TX