Using RH9 on an existant FAT partition?
 

I have 2 partitions with Windows installed on them and a couple
of FAT32 drives with plenty of space for Linux and I was wondering
if I could use Linux on an existant FAT32 partition?

Thanks!

and another thing..
If my installation of Linux fails can I use a Windows bootdisk
to get back into Windows? (Then have Norton restore my boot record or something)

During the install you should make the spare partition(s) you're going to put linux on in ext2 or ext3 format.

If it all goes horribly wrong, and you are using Windows 98, you can boot the computer from a Windows boot floppy and type:

fdisk /mbr

at the command prompt. This will wipe the boot record and should allow Windows to boot from the hard drive. If you're using an NT based version of Windows (2000, XP, etc), this may not work (I don't know about them so much) but I think you can boot from the install CD and perform a rescue operation to reinstall the Windows bootloader.

If you decide you want your linux partitions to be used for Windows again, you may need to use the Windows fdisk program to delete and recreate them, then re-format them.

Hoep that helps :)

Euan

You can install Linux on a fat drive, but it would be better to gather the free space and convert into a new drive to install linux. You can also use Linux to read the data in your existing fat drives. And, yes you can get back to windows easily enough, but don't think the installation will fail if you do it correctly. Go to www.redhat.com and learn the installation fully before trying it though, as it can be pretty scary for newbies.

Before Linux I got pretty deep into low-level stuff like all that
fdisk stuff and extended dos partitions yadda yadda..

I feel a little bit scared but not much as going into linux is like
moving into a foriegn country (or at least for me) after being
in Windows and DOS for so long.

But thanks guys!