As I have only been in the Linux camp for a little while, I am at a point where I need to make some more adjustments, which I think will require a repartitioning and re install.

I've gon through the forums a lot and there seems to be a split decision on Partition Magic. But, at the same time, I want to put a caution out there for those that rely on Disk Druid during exp RH9 installs to do their partitioning.

I had a second HDD on my system , 100GB. What I initially wanted to do, was to take the first 30GB and make it Linux, and the remaining 70GB and create a FAT32 partition so I could save critical Windows Files there so they could be dually accessed by Linux and Windows.

Some people here in the forums suggested that I just install RH9 on the second drive and let Disk Druid do the partitioning for everything. BAD IDEA.

Apparently, Disk Druid doesnt write partition date in some semblance of understanding outside Linux/Disk Druid. When I tried to re partition the FAT32, Partition Magic reports that the entire second hard drive is bad. Which isnt true, because I can boot to it just fine in Linux. But, I cant get to the remaining 70GB either...even through Partitiion Magic.

So, I now have to wipe that whole 100gb drive clean, and this time I think Im going to do ALL the partitioning in Partition Magic ahead of time, and that way I get what I want.

Has anyone had similar experiences? If so I'd be interested in hearing how you resolved the situation, and how you used PM prior to your Linux install.

Does anyone have information or knowledge on pros and cons of NTFS vs FAT32?

Thanks,
Kork

or... you could have some bad sectors on the disk... I'd fdisk the hdd and delete the partition... be careful with prepartitioning with partition magic. 9 times out of ten it will not work the way you intended... I'd just partttion from free space...

i use pm 8 before linux installation to set up space for linux. i don't trust disk druid to actually move my windows partitions as i don't really trust pm8 to do any hdd operations with my linux partitions after linux is installed. i've had pm8 corrupt and delete my journal for ext3 filesystems on a simple (well simple to a user) partition resize. saved my windows partitions using fdisk /mbr, but my linux install was beyond repair. had to do a complete reinstall. using any type of partition program has its risks. basically use at your own risk.

Lupin... thanks, but I DID do a chkdsk, after cleaning. I have heard several times on here that no partitioning tool can read partitions that Disk Druid makes...of course I read that AFTER I did it. I couldnt use fdisk at that time, because they were originially formatted NTFS, so I just erased the partition and let Druid create and configure.

megasoaz -- thanks...I figure I HAVE to do a reinstall for sure. I got 70gb of space thats usuable right now So I figure if I can create 2 partitions using PM...one 30GB Ext2 and one 70 FAT32, that should do it. Then when I install RH9, Disk Druid should see the 30GB blank partition thats ext3 and I should be able to install all of Linux there. Im just not sure about how Druid will let me break that 30gb ext3 into a /, /root, /home, /user and swap.

Kork

you could do that in pm. divide up that 30 gb into the number of linux type partitions you want and format those partitions as ext3 (linux swap for the swap partition) and then use disk druid to label them. i always end up letting disk druid reformat my linux partition formatted in pm8. why? like i said before, i don't trust pm8 enough to feel comfortable that it hasn't drekked crap up. before i install linux, i always make the linux parititions logical partitions in pm8 as opposed to primary mainly because linux can boot from the extend logical partition and if i want to install more windows os'es i don't have to worry about primary paritition limits.

Mega.... thanks again for your insight.

So, if I understand you right, you would go ahead and use PM8 to create the following on the 100gb frive (at the first of the drive):

root (/) 7 GB
/boot 100mb
/usr 7gb
/home 20gb
swap 1gb

the create a couple of FAT32 partitions say 30-36gb each.

But then you would REpartition in Druid??? Not sure I understand that. And not sure why you want to make it a logical partition, because, in my case, Im only going to use WinXP Pro (on a completely separate HDD.

Kork

well in my case, i only have one hard drive. i don't know what the primary partition limit is but there is a limit to how many primary partitions you can have on one hard drive. but it doesn't really matter. it's just something i do. like i said above, i let disk druid reformat (not repartition) the linux partitions created in pm8 because i don't trust pm8 for anything having to do with linux ext3. but yeah, for you linux hard drive, what you posted looks fine to me.

I had the same prob with WinXP Pro on 1 Seagate Barracudda 40gb / Mandrake 9 on another Seagate Barracudda 40gb. PM8 detected an invalid partition table offset (or some crap like that). What I did was let PM8 fix the "bad" partition table stuff, then let druid partition the drive. No probs after that. Before, I was getting files mysteriously "deleting" themselves (very frustrating).

So far, everythings going great (crossed fingers, touch wood, etc ...)

HTH
Baldrick