Partitioning Problems
 

I built myself a new Athlon64 computer over the summer, and had partially partitioned it. I apparently didn't research how to partition a drive well enough (meaning I was just guessing until after something went wrong and I started researching) however, and now I can't get the remaining free space partitioned since I've reached the limit of primary partitions.

I've got a 120 GB Drive. The partitions, as reported in Partition Magic 8.0 are:
C: FAT32 - 20 GB Primary (WinXP Pro)
* Extended - 20 GB
D NTFS 20 G - Logical (Win XP-64)
* Linux EXT3 - 102MB- Logical (Linux= Fedora Core 2)
* Linux EXT3 - ~20 GB - Primary
* - Free Space - 40 GB
* - LinuxSwap - 1 GB? Primary
* - Free Space - 13 GB

I want to partition the remaining free space into 2 sections. A 10-15 GB FAT32 (for sharing files between Window/Linux) and the remaining 40 or so as NTFS (for large video files). I've reached the maximum number of primary partitions allowed on the drive however, and the free space is at the end of the drive where I can't move it into the existing logical partition.

I've tried using partition Magic 8 to create the new partitions by moving the existing partitions around, but it is unable to read/copy/move the Linux EXT3 partitions, although I think it did succeed in moving the Linux Swap Partition. Is there perhaps some way to move/re-create the Linux Swap position as an Extended Partition?

Any ideas on how I can get myself out of this mess without re-installing Linux? I'm probably goign to reinstall it eventually anyway, but I'd rather do so later on when I have the time to play around with it and try a different distribution in it's place.

If I do take the simple approach and redo all but the first 2 partitions (aka re-installing Linux) would I have to uninstall the Lilo Bootloader for Linux first, and if so how?


Thanks

What about fdisk? From command type "fdisk /dev/hd whatever" and you should be able to create new partitions.

You can then format them with mke2fs (which will put ext2 or ext3 on it)
Or boot into Winblows and have Partition Magic put the file system on the partitions.

As far as Lilo goes, any new install would either rewrite your MBR and install a bootloader (Fedora, Mandrake, Suse, Xandros, etc.) or have you configure the bootloader yourself (Debian, Slack, gentoo)

You would need to extend the extended partition in PM to include the free space, then make new logical partitions from the free space.

As long as the free space is outside the extended partition (the primary partition that contains the logical partitions), you can only make primary partitions from it (and since you can only have four per drive, you are out of luck on that count, since you've hit your limit).

Hope this helps.

That's what I thought. The Linux Swap Partition on the drive is the last primary partition on the drive however. Is there anyway that I can simply convert that into an extended partition?

If the Swap Partition is what I think it is, then wouldn't there be no actual/needed data stored on that partition? If that's the case, would Fedora accept it (without giving errors) if I deleted the Swap Partition (LinuxSwap) in it's current location, and re-create it, with the same size, as a logical partition? And if I did do that, could Partition Magic create a new SwapPartition or can I do it through Fedora, or what?

Thxs again.

[Edit:]
From what I've managed to find online, it seems that ti should definetly be possible for me to delete the existing Swap Partition (as Primary) and create a new one (as Logical). The config file in linux: /etc/fstab is apparently where the information/configuration for the Swap file is. I can't seem to find out however what will happen if I delete the swap partition without changing that file, and whether or not it'll automatically detect the new swap partition when I create it. Should I edit that file first, or fix it after and hope for the best?

[Update:]
Ok, looks like I'm going to be left with no choices but to reinstall both Linux and XP-64 Beta. I can delete the Swap Partition, but as I already have an extended partition at the beggining of the drive (in front of partitions that can't be moved) that essentially gets me nowhere. Thxs neway. Maybe when I re-install I'll give another Linux Distribution a try (currently using FC2)