Installing CentOs (when i already have windows and ubuntu)
 

Hi, I have four partitions in my hard drive. My drives are C: , D: , E: and F:

I have windows XP installed in C, I have ubuntu installed in D. What I want to do is install CentOs is my drive e: . How do I do it? Will all my files in other drives be erased? Or can i simply add centos to my computer?

Should be easy enough to do if you have room on your drive. I'd suggest you boot into Ubuntu and run the command: "sudo fdisk -l" (Lower case Letter L) and post the output. This will give partition information as seen by Linux so someone can advise you on which partition to install CentOS.

When I do sudo fdisk -l my output is as follows:

I've never used CentOS but most Linux installs work the same way. The partition information you posted shows one primary partition active/bootable with an ntfs filesystem, that would be sda1. sda2 is an extended partition which holds three ntfs logical partitions, sda5, sda6, sda7. During your installation, you will need to install somewhere other than to one of these partitions.

I would suggest that you run Disk Defragmenter from xp before beginning any installation. During the installation, you will be asked how you want to install. Be certain you do not choose the option "use the whole disk" as that will overwrite everything. Create another logical partition, sda8, format it as ext3 filesystem and install CentOS. Or, you could create a primary partition as you have only used two.

You indicated that you have Ubuntu installed in your "D" drive yet the fdisk output shows no Linux partitions?? How many physical hard drives do you have? Are they attached/plugged in??

You'll also need to do some reading to understand the Grub bootloader if you plan to use it or how to use the xp bootloader to boot CentOS.

You will need to make some (non partitioned) free space for Centos - and it will want to replace the bootloader. Which doesn't play nicely as it happens.

That fdisk list is a bit odd - let's see the output from "df -hT".

How did you install Ububtu? Do you run it under Windows using Wubi?

If so, you will most likely need to find a different way to install CentOS.

I think you're thinking of wubi - I'd doubt that would be able to see the real disk.
The partition type in the partition table is not a definitive indicator of the filesystem used - hence my request for the df output.

Sorry Syg, went back and edited my post to insert the correct name and I guess we crossed paths.

np - next time I'll make sure I quote you ... ;)