Need Partition Help!!!

[spinningheel4242]

Hey there,
I am trying to partition my harddrive using partition magic 7.  I have windoze me on 5 gigs and want to dual boot with linux (desktop/LX).  I want to keep 36 gigs for my windoze me partition and about 2 gigs for the linux partition.  But, I can't seem to get it to work......

Spin

[voidmain]

Could you be more specific about what you can't get to work (step by step)?

[rtgwbmsr]

Yeah, we need more info to help...

BTW: Partition Magic is BAD...it has a tendency to really screw things up. I recommend using any Linux install partitioner - just don't use PM.

[spinningheel4242]

Ok,
I have a 38 gig harddrive fat32 with windoze me currently installed.

I want to create a linux partition on about 4 gigs, leaving 34 gigs for windoze and dual boot between each OS.

Now, with Partition Magic 7, I click on create partition, choose "yes, partition with have OS installed," and choose Linux Ext partition format from list.  

Partition asks me what size I want partition (4 gigs) and then if I want it logical or primary...

I choose logical and then the screen shows a before and after image of the harddrive.

Fat32 is reduced to about 7.5 gigs, Linux is on 4 gigs, and the rest is identified as "unallocated"

I have tried tinkering with the setting but nothing seems to work.  I want about 34 gigs of fat32, not just 7.5 gigs

Also, if I go through with this partition, can I reassign the unallocated space to my fat32??

thanks

[voidmain]

I have always created the Linux partitions at Linux install time and only use Partition magic to shrink the existing Windows partition. Instead of trying to create the Linux partition have you tried just draging the right edge of the displayed FAT32 partition to the left (creating free space at the end of the drive)? Just drag it to the left until it is the size you want. Leave the free space at the end of the drive and install Linux but make certain you don't do a "default" install that wipes out the entire disk, you want to go in and do a customized partition setup. It should detect your Windows partition, don't mess with that. But you'll want to create at least a "swap" partition of type "swap" at around 256MB depending on how much ram you have and a "/" partition of type "ext3" on the rest of your free space. You don't have to use "ext3" file system type for the "/" partition, I would suggest you use whatever the distribution's default Linux file system is. In RedHat that is "ext3".

Now having your Linux partitions so far from the beginning of the drive can potentially cause problems (this is not just a problem in Linux, Windows has problems with this as well). But it should tell you if it will have a problem with this when you install. Don't know if this helps.

[Calum]

i recommend doing it all while installing like void main says.
Also, don't give all tht to windows. give them both 4 gigs (or maybe 5 to linux) and have a couple of fat32 partitions separate after your operaitng systems.

Also, expect ocassional disasters if you continue to use partition magic. I still use it (although i prefer it's little DOS brother pqmagict.exe, sadly gone from more recent releases) however i acceptq that it will fuck up every now and again.

[voidmain]

Calum, that makes much more sense. Small OS partitions up front and a big FAT32 parition at the end that they both can share. If it were my machine I would give 38GB to Linux and 2GB to Windows though.