How to Partition a Drive?

NintendoFan · 11-03-2004, 10:28 PM

Hello,
I hope I can ask this here, I need help partitioning a hard drive.
Right now I have 1 Hard Drive and Windows XP is installed on it. I want to keep XP, and have some sort of dual boot system where I can choose to load into XP or Linux when I turn on my computer.
I have an HP pavilion 725n.
I have 1 hard drive, but HP has already partitioned it to 2 drives.
There is Drive C, which has everything on it, has 43.1 GB of free space, and 70.4 GB of space in total. It is NTFS.
Drive D, is only 4.07 GB, and is filled up with Recovery information.
How can I (for free) Partition Drive C, so I can have have XP and Linux on it. Without losing my information on C and D.

druggo · 11-03-2004, 11:18 PM

a software named Partition Magic will help you !

the lastest version is 8, I guess

NintendoFan · 11-03-2004, 11:50 PM

Partition Magic would be great to have, but it costs $70US. I need to know how to partition my drive for free.

1kyle · 11-04-2004, 04:33 AM

I think some disros when you install have some type of partitioning software on them --SUSE does and maybe Mandrake etc.

I'm not sure if it will dynamically resize NTFS partitions -- but I think so --read the documentation on the CD or on the web for the particular distro you are installing

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J.W. · 11-04-2004, 12:42 PM

I suggest taking a look at BootIT NG -- J.W.

JaseP · 11-04-2004, 03:30 PM

Partition Commander is a little cheaper than Partition Magic (Like $45 US), and it handles ReiserFS as well.

Mandrake has something called HardDrake which is very good. SuSE can move NTFS partitions to make room for itself. I've never tried using it.

Remember, fiddling around with NTFS partitions in Linux is a little dangerous. NTFS uses some proprietary ways of setting up the drive that have only been partially dissected by OSS coders seeking to manipulate them. M$ will not cooperate, of course. Writes to NTFS drives are therefore very difficult to do without messing up whatever partition information NTFS stores.

Your best bet is either Partition Magic or Partition Commander and just shrinking and moving those partitions so that you can put a clean Linux install in afterwards.

I personally obliterated the XPee installation off of my C640 laptop and went with SuSE, lock, stock and barrel.