Wanting to wipe Windows off

richcoosa19 · 07-11-2003, 08:21 PM

I have a Mandrake 9.1 server running perfect for me and want to take off my Windows XP partition and add that space to my Linux. The only problem is that the partition is before the linux one, but the partition is FAT 32 I was that smart during installation. So at least I can write to it. Is there any hopes for me, or do I have to just do a complete reinstall, I hope not (I'm running a mySQL server on it

slakmagik · 07-11-2003, 08:39 PM

I don't understand. fdisk /dev/hda - delete partition 1. Then format it as ext3 or Reiser or something. Mount it somewhere in the filesystem. Am I missing something? If you want it for Linux, where it is or what filesystem it currently has doesn't matter does it?

InSane103 · 07-11-2003, 08:45 PM

Go to the Mandrake Control Center, from there go to Mount Points, then DiskDrake.

Once there, unmount the Windows partitions (for example, mine are hda 1 and hda 2).
Then delete them.

Once they are deleted, format them to "Journalised FS: ext3" and mount to a point you wish (something like oh say /ext/).

There, Windows is gone, and Linux can use the space!

richcoosa19 · 07-11-2003, 11:05 PM

Yes that works but will it mess with my booting? Since windows was before my linux partition.

slakmagik · 07-11-2003, 11:10 PM

No - Linux isn't as picky about such things. And since Linux doesn't label things C: and D: arbitrarily, nothing will change as far as that's concerned. You're still booting Linux from /dev/hda2 or whatever. Of course, you won't be able to boot Windows after this

but everything else should be the same.

richcoosa19 · 07-11-2003, 11:13 PM

Well I got up the guts and formatted.
Working fine, thanks a lot.

enigmasoldier · 07-11-2003, 11:27 PM

All you had to do...

Unmount the partition. I am sure that MDK would automount it so look in your /etc/fstab and unmount the it. If it is before your linux partition it is probably hda1 so open up an xterm, switch to root and type the following command. "umount /dev/hda1"

Read the following post. There is no need for me to repeat other ppl.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...2001/05/4/2655

and then you could have it automounted (As a Linux partition) by putting it in the /etc/fstab. Google around and check the man pages

Zoombie · 07-12-2003, 03:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by richcoosa19
Yes that works but will it mess with my booting? Since windows was before my linux partition.

Just make sure you remove your Windows entry from the LILO config.