I have an existing Windows 2000 Server installation. The machine has C: NTFS partion of 20GB and D: logical drive of 30 GB. There is free unallocated space of 27 Gb on which i wish to install linux. During Linux installtion the installer detects this free space and when i proceed with automatic partition it is unable to create / partition and proceed further. When i select manual( disk Druid) partioning i am able to create only / and one more partion. It does not allow to create third partion.

I was able to do the installation with just / and swap but I was windering what is the best way if we need more partions.

I dont want to disturb by C and D drives.

Regards-Anil

Which distribution are you trying to install? And did it give an error that it can't create more partitions or did you just miss the button for it?

that's because there is a limit to the IDE system of 4 primary disk partitions. the trick here is to create extended partitions within the last primary partition and then you're ok. There is info here

http://www.faqs.org/docs/linux_admin/x1139.html

As an example, my partition table looks like this:

wumpus:~$ fdisk -l /dev/hda
Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 4 32098+ de Dell Utility
/dev/hda2 * 5 2615 20972857+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3 2616 2631 128520 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 2632 4864 17936572+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 2632 4740 16940511 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 4741 4864 995998+ 82 Linux swap

Sorry about the formatting - not my fault. But you get the point. here hda1, hda2 and hda3 are primary partitions with a dell partition (utitlities), NTFS and linux (/boot). Then in the extended partition I have / and swap.

HTH

Your existing drive has 3 partitions ( typical of MS).
/dev/hda1 - c: drive
/dev/hda2 - extended partition
/dev/hda5 - d: drive.

An extended partition is the method by which one can create more then 4 partitions. In a nut shell it is a container for logicals. I will assume that the size of the extended partition is only as big as the d: drive itself.

Therefore, even though you have lots of unallocated space you can only create two partitions because, no free space in the extended partition, and you have two free remaining primary partitions available.

To solve your problem you will need to resize your extended partition to include all of the unallocated space.

Before resizing I would backup any really important data.