Hi Friends

Hoping u r doing well

Pls help me i have some problem related to Redhat installation

I have 80 GB IDE Hardisk In that i have assinged 20 GB for primary Partition (C & 60 GB fot Extended Partion. In extended Partition i have created 3 Logical with 20 GB Each & assigned drive letters as D , E & F Respectively. Now i have deleted Partition F. Now my question is tha t can i install Redhat Linux in that Deleted Logical Partion without losing data which are kept in other logical partition. Pls help me out.


Awaiting ur reply.

The answer is NO. You can install Linux on a Primary Partition. If you install it on a Logical partition, you will end up overwriting the MBR on which Windows files are also kept. You can use PartitionMagic SW to convert your Logical partition into a Primary one and then install Linux on it.

I am not sure what you mean, if you deleted the data in "f" partition yes you may install a linux distro on that partition without bothering the info on "d" and "e". First you may consider using a newer version of linux such a Fedora. That is one of the main reasons for partitions is to create a wall so to speak on your hd. Linux distros will install on any logical or primary partitions. There are the other "OS s" that must reside in a primary partition only.

As you have only one primary partition, there is no reason why you should not be able to install Linux without harming your data in the other partitions, as you have a free space ( yoou say you deleted the partition. In linux this is usually called free space. Windows XP calls it unallocated space, but both are same. you cannot have any data in unallocated space. ( even if you have prvious data no OS can read it But there are specail tools for that). Linux can reside in a DOS extended partition. But it will recognise it as its primary partition (needed for / (root). And installing Linux in that free space is in no way going to affect your windows. But the only thing you should remeber is install Windows first and then Linux. Windows wipes out other os information from the MBR. ( the same is true within thw window family too. If you have multiple windows OSes win 98, win NT , Win 200, Win XP etc you should fallow the same heirarchy . 98 first, Nt next , so on. Otherwise later versions will not be recognised and will be erased from the MBR. ).With a 20 Gb free space you will have plenty of free space to play around with in linux. Finally if you are ot familiar wih GRUB pay attention there and select whichever OS you want to boot into by default. usually redhat allows a time of 10 seconds before booting into the default OS. you can the select the other OS by pressing any key within 10 seconds and then selecting the OS.
GOOD LUCK

If you are too worried, you can use VMware to set up a virtual machine and then install Linux on that. This is quite good, especially, if you want to switch from one OS to another frequently.