Partitioning for multiboot on a new hard drive?

wjsulliv · 11-14-2001, 04:00 PM

Ok, I am about to go and buy a new Maxtor 40 gig HD.

How should I set up the partitions?
I want to run:
Mandrake 8.1
Win Me
Win 2000 (eventually)

I have Norton Ghost 2002, so I can easily transfer my current Win Me to the new disk...

Basically I was thinking about setting up 4, 10 gig partitions, one for each os and one as a place to store/write Ghost images to.

Obviously I will be breaking up the linux partition when I install Mandrake...

Am I missing anything? (Do I need a boot partition?)

Could somebody walk me through the format. --> How should I format each drive, and which partition should be assigned what OS?

trickykid · 11-14-2001, 04:08 PM

well, your going to want to install windows OS's first, then install linux, as windows automatically will rewrite the MBR each time it is installed. then you can either use like lilo or grub with mandrake for your boot loader, or you can configure the windows 2000 or NT loader they use to boot each OS.
and yes, you want a /boot partition, its a good idea to have.
easiest way would be have a 10 gb for 2000, 10 gb for ME and then 10 gb for linux ( broken into at least maybe a /boot, / and swap partition at a minimal ) then like you said a final 10 gb parition for ghost images or whatever.

wjsulliv · 11-14-2001, 04:23 PM

Do both lilo and grub come with mandrake? If not where do I find them?

And what is the difference between the two?

I presume that I should use fdisk to partition the drive into the 4 10 gB segments, and format three of them as Fat32 or NTFS. Then use the linux partition/format software to cut of that segment into a boot and swap, etc.?

wjsulliv · 11-15-2001, 10:09 AM

anybody else?

WindozBytes · 11-15-2001, 10:22 AM

LILO comes with Mandrake, not sure about GRUB; it wasn't included with RH until 7.2; it it's not in your distro, you can download from gnu.org (look for a link to gnu software)

Both are boot loaders, GRUB is considered by many to be superior to LILO as it is more powerful, not to mention scriptable. I've just started using GRUB and prefer it to LILO.

Your partitioning plan sound fine; Mandrake will prompt you for how to partition during install; I've not used disk drake, but I understand it is very good/easy to use.