Problem patitioning for Mandrake 9.2 install
 

Hi all.

I've been attempting to install Mandrake 9.2 on my PC alongside windows XP (home ed). The problem I am having is partitioning the drive. I boot up from the Mandrake CD and it goes through the first few steps (check mouse, language etc.) with no problems. When I get to the partitioning part though I hit a brick wall. I get 3 options that DiskDrake gives me. They are:-
1) erase the disk (Not an option I'm afraid)
2) Use the spare space on the windows partition (Best option for me)
3) Custom (I have tried this too)

When I try option 2, it starts examining the partition then generates the report which says someting like "NTFS partitioning failed, Resizing Failed" followed by a lot of percentage progress indicators and at the bottom "Cluster sizing failed".
When I try option 3 and go for a custom setup it shows me the NTFS partition. The auto size doesn't work as it says "not enough space" and the other options are a little alien to me so I'm loathed to go messing with them without really knowing what to do.

As recomended, I ran chkdsk and defragged the drive before starting the install. I have a AMD 2000, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB HD (20 used by XP and other stuff) and various other devices.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I am really keen to get LINUX on my system cos I'm sick of XP, but unfortuanately have to keep it.

Cheers,
DBG.

:Pengy:
:newbie:

hi duffboygrim,

I am just curious, did you partition the remaining 20gb of your drive for linux using XP's partition manager? If that's the case I am afraid u will have to reformat the entire disk. This is what I have learnt thru several resources.

Check out http://www.tldp.org. Browse to the installation section and go through the piece written about dual booting Win XP and Linux.

No I haven't done any partitioning yet. I looked at the XP one and it didn't really give me the option.

i just installed mandrake 9.2 on my xp pro system and put it on a partition on the 2nd drive I have. I have installed linux so many times over the years on dual boot machines I have lost count.........:study:

you either need a 3rd party disk partioner like partition magic to resize your ntfs single drive or - much better - go get a 2nd hard drive...they're cheap and put linux on that drive. save and protect your xp install and if you ever want to delete linux you aren't messing with your main drive.

yau

I was toying with the idea of a second drive. How would it work though? Obviously XP on one and LINUX on another, but how do you choose between which one boots up? would the MBR give you the choice of booting from either drive?

I've got partition magic, but I'm a little nervous using it as I read somewhere that on an XP formatted drive, partitioning it can cause nasties and cause the partition table to become corrupt. Any precautions I would need to take before proceeding with it?

9.2 will install it's own boot loader(LILO I think) automatically. so after I installed mandrake and booted up there is a place you can change the boot sequence in kde control panel so I set windows xp to boot by default (if no action take) and a menu will come up allowing you to select linux if you want. this part worked great on mine.

Cheers,

I got a spare HD with win 98 on it that I don't mind deleting. Problem is I'll have to figure out the jumper settings cos at the momenet they are set as primary master and there are no markings on there to show how to set it it secondary master, which i what I assume is best to set it as unless you know different.