could not allocate partitions as primary partition?
 

Hi everyone,

I am totally new to this Linux game and am wanting to dual boot linux with win95/win2k.
i currently have two hdd'z the primary master being a WD60Gig that has 3 partitions

1st - Win95 - 5.8Gig
2nd - Win2k - 21Gig
3rd - Backup - 28Gig

the rest is either unallocated or the drive wasnt quite 60gig?

the second drive is a seagate 20gig and is primary slave.

1st - Nothing, formatted as fat32 - 10Gig
2nd - Was Backup as fat32 - 10Gig

i am trying to install Red Hat 7.3 onto the 1st partition of my seagate drive.

but when i goto partition it, it will say Could not allocate partitions as primary partition ?? all i know is that linux apparently has to have its /boot in the first 6gig's of the drive ? is this correct and if so is it alright to be putting that /boot on the slave drive ?? because nothing is working and i HATE microWANK software and want to put on linux

PLEASE HELP ME IM SO LOST

Thanks
Syph0n

Hi Syph0n

Firstly - I personally would just get hold of Red Hat 9 - you'll find it easier to use than 7.3

Second - Linux needs to use its own Filesystems to install on to - it won't install correctly on a Windows FAT32 partition.

You can install Linux by setting your BIOS to boot from the cd-rom drive - pop in your 1st Red Hat cd and boot.

You'll come to a stage were it says what partitions do you want to use and where do you want to install the sysytem

Linux will recognise your Primary Slave drive (your Seagate one) as

/dev/hdb

So just opt to install Linux on /dev/hdb

Red Hat 9 has the ability to delete all existing partitions on a drive and format any new partitions with a Linux filesysytem - so Red Hat9 can automatically delete any FAT32 partitions off that Seagate drive and install itself onto it with ease.

Linux doesn't need to have a /boot partition in the first 6 gigs of a drive - it does need to have a bootloader though somewhere on the system.

I would just install either GRUB or LILO to the MBR - This is the boot sector on your 1st hard drive.

Good luck - and re-post if you ahve any other thoughts.

Hey Skyline,

thanks for your prompt reply
typical Kiwi bastard i am i just went ahead like a bullet out of a gun and installed linux by deleting the win95 partition i had and putting /boot into there, then deleted the e: drive i had as backup and installed the /root or /home cant remember which one into there and it installed no worries
BUT of course now i cant get into win2k ? it has the option of win2k on the bootloader - but actually in the installation it said something like DOS so i renamed it to win2k (just seemed a bit suspect in the sense it wasnt really a loader for win2k?) but when i go to boot win2k it just has a screen saying "L?" and i cant do anything its all locked up etc.

so im thinking maybe to go into recovery mode off win2k disc and type fixmbr ? then once back in win2k edit the boot.ini file or something so that linux is on win2k'z bootloader ?? not that i know how to edit that file for those purposes but im sure ill find out how ?? lol@myself

im hoping this isnt a major
thanks for your help
Syph0n

Hi Syph0n

It's just an idea, but why don't you just have Windows 2000 on your 1st hard drive and Linux on your 2nd hard drive - ie just back up what stuff you want to keep, get rid of Windows 95 all together and just dual boot Win2k and Linux.

Then, you get the best of Windows with say Win2k (or maybe XP) and a good Linux distribution, maybe Red Hat 9 or Mandrake 9.1

It's just an idea - but your dual boot would be a little simpler and your still getting the best of both worlds.