with acronis partion program can i use free space on my windows installation to create a partition that linux can be installed on? i was reading through the online instructions for mandrake linux and it said that i can install it onto a linux partion. can i create a linux partition with acronis disk director suite. help will be appreciated as ,as im sure you can see, this is the first time ive ever done this.


p.s. i want a dual boot with windows.

2 hard drives.

c: drive is where windows is installed


f: another drive with lots of free space, i want to take the free space and partition it so i can put linux on that partition.

Thx

I've never done that myself, because I don't have Windows. But as far as I know, "for-windows" partition tools should be avoided where Linux is concerned. If you install Mandrake, it should auto-detect your Windows installation, and offer you to dual boot.
Yet, you have to know what you're doing with the partition tool, and it is better if you backup the data you have already on disk.
You should also be aware that in Linux, primary IDE master device is called /dev/hda, primary IDE slave device is called /dev/hdb, secondary IDE master device is called /dev/hdc, and secondary IDE slave device is called /dev/hdd. And partitions on each device are numbered from 1 to ...whatever. So for example, your "C:" partition probably is /dev/hda1 in Linux. And the big partition, alone on the other disk, with free space on it, is probably either /dev/hdc1, or /dev/hdb1.

Yves.

Hello!

Is the f: drive completely empty, or does at least not contain any vital data? If so, then you already have the necessary space for a Linux installation. Mandrake has a very good partitioning program included in the installer, and from there you will be able to specify where to put your new Linux installation. Dual booting is also no problem as Mandrake detects any other operating systems on the computer and adds them to the bootloader (Grub or lilo).

Good luck!

Razze

no, F: has data on it.(not much, 60 gb of free space).

also, can i not partition first an ntfs drive safely with acronis disk director?As the mandrake docs say

"
Warning

NTFS Partitions. Windows 2000, NT or XP users should be careful: even though it's possible to resize NTFS partitions with GNU/Linux, it's highly recommended that you back up your data before starting the installation. Use partition resizing at your own risk.
"

so is it not safer to do it with acronis disk director which can (apparently) partition ntfs?

If you have some space to spare on c: (for at least some time) the easiest would be to move your data from f: to c:. Then you can delete the NTFS partition and create the partitions needed for linux (for instance: swap (about the same amount as your ram), / 8 GB, /usr/local 15 GB, /home 20) and create a FAT partition that both windows and linux can read. Then you can move your data back to this partition after the installation. The NTFS partition can also be resized, but I have never done this and have no idea of how this works. Besides, you would still have to backup the data in case something goes wrong.

not enough space to move data from F: to C: .

damn, this is going to be remarkably difficult and stressfull, how can i make a backup of F: . I made an image of C: a while ago using acronis true image but if i make a image of F: , i wont have anywhere to put it. Its too big to fit on C: .

grrrrrr.......