Hey. This is my first aattemp on installing linux. It's Manddrake 10.1 Community. I have no clue how parrtition the drive because in the step where you can resize, delete, and make partitions have different file systems i just get the error Cannot write partition table when i click Done. I cannot get past this step. Any advice would be nice. Or how can i partition the drive to beable to start installing. BTW, im installing it on another hard drive in my computer im on right now. I had windows 98, but after i tried to insall linux i cant even boot an OS or installing anyhting else expecpt Mandrake. So it's not a very urgent thing. But i would like to start using linux. Thanks for reading

Maybe something is wrong with your partition table, so Mandrake cannot use it. Use other partitioning tools, like bootitng. It is free for trying and can resize ntfs partitions without data loss! So, maybe you can download it at http://www.terabyteunlimited.com , install it, and use it. First, if you have windows, resize the windows partition so that it leaves at least 2GB for linux install. Than, make a ext3 partition about 65% of your free space, then add a /home partition for your data, about 20% of your free space, and a swap partition that's twice the size of your RAM. Then go on and install mandrake.

during the mandrake installation u can use the auto locate thingy........... it will automatically partition ur hdd if some space of ur hdd is kept free i.e unpartitioned. Hope it solve ya problem

Thanks both of you! I will try both of your methods now. Thanks again. I'll let you know how it goes.

Ok. I've tried deleting all partitions and auto allocating. It did not work. I got the "cannot write partition table" error. I'm about to try that program you suggested. I made a floppy ou of it so far, now i will try to boot from it on the 2nd HD.