i have an ntfs partition running winxp, three other fat32 partitions for data and 10 gb of free unused space.
however, it shows up as unusable in the ubuntu installer. i can only see information about it when i select it using manual partitioning, and the guided partitioner says that it cant be used, "mabye because there are too many primary partitions". it is the largest continuous free space on my disk.
im running the i386 version. i have an intel pentium 4 1.6ghz . (dell 4300s)
please help me. thanks!
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Old Yesterday, 05:56 PM #2
tmowerman
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Default Re: guided partitioning does not work
Traditionally, it was only possible to have four partitions on a disk. Obviously, people soon began to need more, and a scheme was invented to allow this. It had to remain backwardly compatible with the old scheme.
A notion of primary and extended partitions was created. You were (and still are) allowed four primary partitions. If you needed more, you create an extended partition, then create more partitions inside it.
Unfortunately, you have four primary partitions. The simplest solution would be to backup the smallest one, and delete it. You can then create an extended partition and add the fat partition, and ubuntu partition and swap within this. You may need to make sure the 3 partitions are at the front of the disk, so you have a continuous block of free space.
To simplify this, you might want to try qtparted on the knoppix live cd, or also parted from a console window, if that is not too scary!
It may be possible to rewrite the partition table without affecting the data, but you will have to hope someone who knows more than me answers! I am having trouble with partitioning too.
Tim
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Old Yesterday, 06:05 PM #3
weijie90
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Default Re: guided partitioning does not work
right now i have 10gb of space in between the 2nd fat32 and the 3rd fat32 partitions. should i make it a fat32 partition, and then select it in the ubuntu partition manager?
and should i "shift" the last 2 fat 32 patritions to the end of the disk? can qtparted do this without data loss?
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Unread Yesterday, 06:17 PM #4
tmowerman
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Default Re: guided partitioning does not work
If you tell me the size of all the partitions I might be able to help more. I am a little confused at the moment!
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Unread Today, 06:38 PM #5
weijie90
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Default Re: guided partitioning does not work
#1- 20gb ntfs, active, running winxp without any third party bootloaders
#2- 10gb fat32 data (primary)
#3- 10gb unused. "unusable" on installer
#4- 20gb data (primary)
#5- 20gb data (primary)
#6- 31mb unused "unusable" on installer
i think ive got it! i can delete #2, create a 20gb extended in its place (#2+#3) and have the 10gb logical fat32 in the extended partition, then install linux in the rest of the (extended) space?
#1- 20gb ntfs, active, running winxp without any third party bootloaders
#2- Extended
10gb fat32 data
10gb for linux......
#3- 20gb data (primary)
#4- 20gb data (primary)
#5- 31mb unused "unusable" on installer
if i use guided partitioning, the active flag will be set to the linux partition. if i change it back to partition #1, the installer still says in the summary that partition table #1 will be changed. will this delete all the data on that partition? i want to use a boot floopy, i dont want to use grub as it might destroy my whole hard disk. i think so, that is.
so how should i partition the linux partition? note i have 10gb for linux. i have 256 mb ram. so /swap is 512mb?
