hi,

this is my first post here...

i have a 80GB hard drive as primary master partitioned as C:, D: and E:. I have Windows xp installed on C:

I have a got a new unformatted 120 GB hard drive set as the primary slave. I want to install redhat 9.1 on the this new drive. in addition, i want to partition this drive into 3 partitions.

my question is, how can i format the new hard drive so that redhat 9.1 recognizes the new harddrive (right now its detecting the windows xp installed primary master as hda)?

any suggestions on how to proceed with the installation without losing any data on the windows xp partitions?

First off, install the new hard drive on as slave on the primary IDE controller (you may have to set the jumpers on the HD correctly).

Now, you say that you want to have three partitions on the new drive. Well...for Linux or Windows?
If you want to create three new Windows partitions simply plug in the HD, boot up Windows and create the partitions (Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Computer Management >> Disk Management). Leave the amount of space that you wish to allocate to Linux as free.

Then when you have formatted the partitions simply boot from the first RedHat CD and in the partitioning tool, create swap, root and optional other partitions for Linux. It's pretty straightforward and simple.

If you want the three new partitions to be all Linux, simply create them with the RedHat installer. Simple as that.

Håkan

Addition: You will have no problems installing Linux on a secondary drive like hdb or hdf or whatever - it doesn't have to be /dev/hda. It doesn't matter to Linux, as long as you can write to the master boot record of the first drive in the system so you can install a bootloader.

Håkan

hi hakan,

thx for the info....

i m trying to partition the new 120 GB hard drive into three partitions, and install only linux on the second hard drive. so, i will have windows xp (with three partitions) on the first hard drive and linux on the second drive (again linux with three partitions)...

the problem is straightway after booting from the redhat cd1 without formating and partioning the new drive, redhat only recognizes hda ( i presume tht this is my old 80 GB hard drive). in that case, it will delete my data. i dont want tht to happen....

new suggestions will be of immense help..

thx again!

well, hello there, u seem to have a windfall of hard drives, mind donating some to me??


anyway...i found this tute a long time ago, im pasting it here, hope it helps you ..........
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Triple Booting With windoze and linux
by Deathlire..


1. First off, know what operating systems your going to be using, for now and in the future if you don't plan on formatting your computer alot. **TIP** Windows XP will mess up your linux partitions if it is installed anytime after linux, it also corrupts your partitions sometimes.

2. How big is your hard drive? how much space do you think you need, and what OS do you plan on using the most? If you have a drive that has about 60gig or so then you should be set for awhile. **TIP** use about 5gigs total for WinXP, and if you want Win98 to, use about 2gigs on it.

3. HOW TO. first thing to do is backup all of your data on your computer. then begin with a clean hard drive for this.

4. Get out your WinXP cd and stick it in and when it asks, create your own partition letsay about 5,000MB, then just get windows to install on it.

5. You have it all installed now, what to do? Well get on the net, and try to find a program that can hide partitions and set new partitions active, trust me it's real easy this way, I recommend using Partition Magic, seems to work the best at hiding a partition.

6. If your using Partition Magic Select Install another OS it will hide and do everything for you, if you'd rather do it manually or you do not have partition magic. I will explain it somewhat. load up the program you have and it must be able to hide partitions or its not worth a shit. Now just read the manual or doc on the software..figure it out. DO NOT hide the partition yet.

7. Use some kind of program to make a Primary partition, have its size be about 1,998MB. this is going to be your Windows 98 partition.

8. Now is the time to hide your XP partition, and set the Windows98 partition active, you can use fdisk to set it active, it comes with Win98 so there ya go.

9. boot up your comp with a boot disk and go into the dos prompt, and type dir..Make sure that it says its 2000mb or right around that size, if its not you have done something wrong. If all is well, goto your cdrom drive by typing d: usually, then type setup and install 98. alrighty now we have that finished up.. good job dude. now onto linux...or if you want to skip linux your gonna need a bootloader but i'm not getting into that in this tutorial.

10. Now your all set, Put in your linux install cd and install it using expert mode. when you get to the partitions options you'll notice your 2 windows partitions there don't touch them at all.. just click your mouse in the empty white space and hit create, then a dialog will come up, it will say mount point: / keep it / and make its size in megabytes to about 150 megs or more whatever you prefer. click the white again and create it should say swap this time. make it about 400Mb, next create again then /usr comes up make this partition about 3 to 5gigs, then create again it goes to /var , make that 600mb or so then create once more, /home make this high as you want recommend about 10gigs. then make some more partitions if you wish..but you don't need to. now click on Done. then it asks about format options, make sure hda1 and hda2 arent clicked...otherwords your windows partitions.. boom, now just install whatever ya want.

11. Alrighty boot up into windows 98, cause winXP is still going to be hidden....Unhide WinXP's partition.. then restart

12. after installing linux, the bootloader should have found both windows versions, and now you should be able to triple boot, if there isnt 2 options for windows when lilo comes up, you'll have to add windows manually.. easy stuff just go into linux..and find the settings for lilo or whatever bootloader your using, then add Windows Xp to it, winxp should be on hda1 or hda0 depending on how you did this setup. then save the modifications..and reboot and see if you can get into Xp...you should be able to...

13. Your done, now go smackit or somethin haha...