File System types
 

Hey there

I have just grabbed a copy of Fedora Core 5 from university and I want to install it here at home. I have two hard drives in my computer, C:, NTFS, which has windows xp installed on it and is used mainly for gaming and D: which is currently unallocated waiting to be used, which I will install FC5 onto and use as a file storage drive (videos, music etc). So after a little reading around I think I need to format my D: as a VFAT file system, so my question is, how do I go about doing that? Formatting the disk in the basic windows disk management formatting thing only gives me the option to format as an NTFS drive. Will partition magic let me do this or an MS-DOS command?

Cheers

VFAT isnt a filesystem type, it generally refers to fat32 though.

please note:
your 'C:' isnt your harddrive.. 'C:' is actually just one NTFS partition. harddrives are divided into partitions before they can be used to store data. same with 'D:', thats actually just another partition.

first, you need to find out if your 'D:' partition is on the master or slave harddrive. most likely its on your slave drive; so note this: /dev/hdb1
this may look foreign, but youll need to remember it. this will be where you install FC5.

second, make sure your BIOS supports and is set up to check booting from the CD drive before the master hard drive. if so, then put your FC5 installation cd 1 in, and boot the computer to it. the entire installation process will take some time, so make sure you set some time aside to understand it and do it properly and completely.

the installation process for FC5 should be graphical and pretty straightforward (i assume). if you have some introduction knowledge about linux/unix then you should be fine; also noting the place where you will install linux (/dev/hdb1 if thats the case). if you dont have intro knowledge about unix/linux, i highly suggest taking 2 hours and reading about it. theres unlimited basic knowledge of it that you can find on google.com/linux or search anywhere.

good luck!

Actually you will need two areas of space to make this all work. you will need a drive that is formatted as VFAT (FAT32) to allow transfer of files between winows and Linux and you will need unallocated freespace that Linux can partition and format during install.

As for the FAT32 drive windows should be able to format the frive as FAT32 without any trouble, BUT apparently windows cannot format a drive that is larger than 32 GB as FAT32 using the graphical disk manager you have to do it from the command line..

First thing I would do is delete that empty partition. Use part of the free space to create a new partition and format it FAT32. from the command line the command to format a partition would be
format <drive letter> /fs:filesystem
or in your case more specifically
format d: /fs:fat32

Then boot your Linux install CD and tell it to install to the free space, the installer will partition and format the free space as needed to install Linux


I don't know the size of your drive so I'll show an Example partitioning for 250 GB Drive f

Partition 1 = 125 GB = C: = NTFS
Partition 2 = 50 GB = D: = FAT32
Partition 3 = 75 GB = Free Space (for Linux Install)

Thanks guys, clears things up a little. My hard drives are 80GB and 120GB, so maybe a partition like this:

Partition 1: NTFS - windows xp - 80GB (first hdd)
Partition 2: unallocated - linux install - 20GB (second hdd) (20 GB enough?)
Partition 3: FAT32 - file storage, used by both OS's - 100GB (second HDD)

I heard somewhere its best to put Operating systems at the very front of disk drives, or is the front of a parittion fine aswell.

It also seems that windows only gives me the option to format a partition as FAT32 when formatting just a chunk of the hard drive, when formatting the whole thing as I was trying before it would only let me do NTFS.

Oh dear - what a lot interesting advise. I'll add mine...

From your description, windows can see two partitions on one ide drive (is this right?). The partitions are labelled C: and D: in windows. D:, though, is unformatted.

This is fine.

The FC5 installation process will do all the formatting for you. Insert the install disk and reboot - anaconda will walk you through it.

For your first time - stick to the default install. You want to dual boot? This is fine, there will come a place where you will be told what partitions you have, and it will ask you where to install linux, with a range of options.

While a small vfat partition (linux calls fat32, "vfat") is often suggested as a simple/safe way to exchange files between windows and linux, there are other tools. There are windows tools to write to ext3 (linux) file systems, and "captive" is a tool which allows linux to write to ntfs.

I wouldn't worry at this point.

I always advise newcomers the following:

1. erase the D: partition. (This leave completely empty space - which is good.)
(Windows dosn't play well with the other children. Lets not tell windows about the linux partition. What it cannot see it cannot mess up.) You may, considering the foregoing, prefer to use this as a vfat partition to share between windows and linux. In which case, leave it alone and use the advanced settings in anaconda to resize it, and format it to fat32. Select something like /usr/d-drive as the mountpoint.

2. install grub to the master boot record - there is sometimes trouble with this, but nothing that cannot be fixed.

3. follow the defaults.

If you are comfortable with partitioning, it is useful for the furture to use the advance partioning settings in anaconda to assign the /home dircetory it's own partition. If you are not: never mind.

Bear in mind that once you are familiar with linux, you will likely want to reinstall to a configuration you feel is more right for you. So it is best to consider the first installation as a trial run - a short glide on the learning curve.

Above all: have fun.

Oh yeah: newcomers to fedora core should know about and visit:

www.fedorafaq.org
... short but official, includes much of what you want to know right up to within minuits of installing.
www.mjmwired.net > resources
... much longer set of fedora installation notes, which also go a long way to explain what each bit actually does.

You are only using the vfat partition to copy files between OS's. It need only be small, 4GB is a good size since it is also a DVD.[/quote]I heard somewhere its best to put Operating systems at the very front of disk drives, or is the front of a parittion fine aswell.[/quote]Linux likes it where it is put. It is best to have bootable partitions in primary partitions... but if you stick to the defaults, things should be fine.Don't bother formatting with windows. Anaconda will handle all that for you.

What you want is probably:

hda1 = ntfs (primary partition)
hdb1 = vfat (primary partition) mount point /usr/d-drive (windows D:)
hdb2 = ext3 (primary partition) 1-2GB mountpoint /boot
hdb3 = swap (primary partition) 1GB (is overkill)
hdb4 = extended partition (occupying the rest of the drive)
hdb5 = ext3 20-60GB home: mountpoint /home
hdb6 = ext3 (remaining space) root: mountpoint /

grub on hda0 (hda MBR)

The default for the drive would be:

hdb1 = boot /boot
hdb2 = swap
hdb3 = root /

grub in hda0

Or something ... you are spoiled for space, but do use a journaling file system for your linux files (and as much as you can indeed). I've been known to give 10-20GB to root and stick home, usr and boot in their own partitions.