Partition Know-how in installing Linux
 

Hello Everyone,

I have 4 partitions on my system. 1 is primary, which has wondows XP pro installed on it, and the rest are all logical partitions.

I want to install Red Hat 9 on my PC. Can I do it without erasing Windows XP? Some friend of mine told me that I need to have an Extended partition for that.

Please help.

Thanks a lot


Aman J Singh

Tell you what, I do not have any Extended partition. Sorry to miss out that info.

Thanks

Aman

Hi,

I think that you cannot have logical partitions if you don't have an extended one. Are you sure that those 3 partitions are logical?

From what I know, I can have up to 4 partitions (primary), one of those can be extended. Logical partitions are created INSIDE the extended partition and are not limited in number.

If you have only primary partitions, you will need to remove one of them in order to install Linux.

Yes you do - all the logical partitions exist in the one extended partition.
Don't worry - install Linux in any free logical (or primary, it matters not) partitions.

It'll all work. And you certainly don't need to delete XP.

Hi

Sorry again, I just found out that I have 1 primary partition and 1 Extended (in which I have 3 logical partitions).

Now I want to know whether installing linux on one of these logical partitions will affect all the 3 of them or not? I mean if it does i need to take care of the data in the other two logical partitions. isnt it?

Thanks for the help.

regards

Aman

As syg00 says, It wont affect your other logial partitions or the primary partition where XP is.

On the other hand, I think that you will need to remove the partition and create at least 2 of them. One for Linux and other for SWAP.

Alright, I had installed it once on my PC, but then it had created the partition iteself from one of my drives. I hope it does this time too and creates the SWAP partition automatically.

Anyways thanks a lot guys. It has been great help. I love LQ and people here.

regards

Aman

PS - by the way do you have any idea how much it costs to buy redhat latest version or any other good Distro?

You might try Mepis Linux. It's free and the final version is 3.3. Mepis is Debian based and a very nice distro in features/ease of use. Ive been using it for a year and a half as my primary OS. Windows XP has been fine with it.
The need for a fourth partition that's an extended partition for your logical partitions is true.:Pengy: