To start off I have installed Debian and solaris on my computer already and am using lilo to boot them. Because of certain software lacking from linux for my PDA and wines inability to emulate I need to install Windows 98. The problem is that my extra partition for windows is /dev/hda3 and windows does not accept that. I need to know how to change my partition order aournd without destorying any current data, or some other way to get windows installed.

This is my current Disk Partition setup:

Disk /dev/hda: 82.3 GB, 82348277760 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10011 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 6618 53149824 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 6618 6748 1050336 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda3 * 6748 8054 10487232 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda4 8054 10012 15728832 82 Linux swap

In some future world you may not be held hostage for your lack of knowledge about every possibility when partitioning a hard drive...
...but that is not now...

Good Luck.

The easiest way to do it would be to buy another hard drive. Put that in as the master, load Windows onto it and then put it back as the slave later and use lilo to boot from it.

Hold on! What the hell! You have a 15GB swap partition! That's massive! Don't suppose you have less than 15GB of stuff on your main partition?...

Is that supposed to help?

No I don't have a 15GB swap, that is the Solaris installation, it uses the same type identifier as Linux Swap though, and the option to buy a new HD is not there

The OP has apparently created 4 primary partitions instead of forseeing and knowing everything possible down the road. Not an uncommon problem when partitioning a hard drive. Actually my post was a comment, which I believe is allowed...

Personally, I attempt to create the correct partitions when I start from scratch with a new hard drive. I do always run into some sort of "gotcha" eventually. Perhaps I should have said "you and I both may not be held hostage..."

It was ment to mean something like, partitioning hard drives is not an easy task but we learn from our mistakes.

There are lots of solutions for his problem, but I think, no easy ones.