Installing F8, perceived insufficient space
 

I can't seem to install Fedora 8 on my computer. Can anyone help me?
I have a Dell Optiplex GX280 with 40 gB HDD and Windows XP Pro. I downloaded the F8 i386 full iso image, did the checksum, and burned it to a DVD.
I wanted to maintain my Windows on the computer and install the linux alongside it. As such, I made a 10 gB NTFS primary partition (using Partition Magic) to take the Fedora.
When I went to boot install from the DVD, it started OK with the welcome screen, the disk check screen, and the Anadconda welcome screen. I proceeded to the language and keyboard screens Ok, and onto the partitioning screen. This screen does not seem to recognize partitions on th HDD and only lists one drive, with the total size of 40 gB or whatever.
I selected "Use free space on the selected drives and create default layout" option. From there it locks up: "Error partitioning", "could not allocate requested partitions: Partitioning Failed: Could not allocate partitions as primary partitions. Not enough space left to create partition for /boot".
But there's plenty of space there, over 27 gB free.
I ended up deleting all partitions and trying to install again; same result. Even when selecting "Remove Linux partitions on selected drives and create default layout" on the partition screen, it still doesn't recognize the free space.
I even went to my new Acer 6292 laptop with 160 gB and Windows Vista Business, and tried to install the F8 on it in the same way. Same result, "not enough space".
Anyone have an idea what I may be doing wrong?
Thanks

- erase this partition to leave blank space, Do not create a partition. Do not format anything. Then boot from the install media.

Thanx a lot for your reply, Simon.
Yes, as I had said, I already did erase all partitions and re-tried the install. Same result, insufficient space.
Northernswag

for the record, linux can't install to ntfs partitions, it uses ext3 format usually

Wait: you tried installing to a completely blank 40GiB HDD? No partitions at all?

Just checked out your HW, JIC - sometimes get this when a special driver is needed to access the HDD, fedora assumes it isn't there and so - no free space. This doesn't appear to be an issue on that acer for eg.

It follows that this is something that you are doing - from a slight glitch in the install media to misidentifying the drive.

If you exit to a terminal at the partitioning step, you can enter "fdisk -l" and have a look at what fedora thinks is there.

Simon et al,
Thanks a million for all your replies.
I did finally figure out, with help, what the problem was with "perceived insufficient space", in case you're interested.
All the space on my HDD was taken up with a single NTFS partition. We ended up shrinking the size of the partition by about 12 gB, leaving that amount of space empty and unpartitioned, i.e. "outside of" the primary partition. We could then install the FC8 straight onto the unpartitioned space. It installed beautifully, without a hitch.
And what an amazing OS and software! I LOVE IT. I could get straight into everything without confusion or learning curves. In fact, I'm doing this reply through the Linux Firefox. It all works flawlessly.
Thanks again to all.
Northernswag

What did I tell you?
But you said that you'd already done this.

I suspect a language barrier between Windows and generic use.

<much head shaking and muttering>

Well... you got it in the end.
And this makes it all worth while.

I have been doing this the other way recently - installed XP-Home (for comparison) and attempted to get it up that level of useability... managed to get MPlayer, firefox, open-office and evolution on there with ClamAV for essential protection. Ran out of free apps. Got multi-desktops, and a dock application OK - and ZoneAlarm as a security guard.

Online about an hour before running a scan, and found 4 bits of malware running. Zonealarm blocks a portscan every 3-4 mins. We're well out of this Windows thing.

I find that windows cannot correctly configure the (intel) wireless card or hibernate. Recovers from suspend best out of three. However, it does switch the blue LED on by default. Still won't play some DVDs. Won't play any of my multimedia. AND: I couldn't activate it. (Well... eventually. First the online activation tells me off for buying a pirate copy, then the phone activation tells me off for installing to too many computers... it came with the computer guys!)

All this leaves me to wonder if Windows is truly ready for the desktop...

Getting this far took me about 8 hours - mostly tracking down freeware.