Hi
having successfully installed an old Mandrake 7.0 on an even older system [VGA monitor!!] I became a bit bored with my continuing inability to do the equivalent of load programs from a CD and run them [I could find the files...I did actually play xbill, but couldn't figure out how to run StarOffice...]
I therefore bought a Linux for D'ohheads kit [Caldera - sorry, I didn't know then that was the lawsuit people] and after reading the point'n'click cartoon instructions, felt confident enough to try dual boot [again], with Caldera.
Thing is, I couldn't find info in any of a half a dozen or so books on what happens when installing one distro over another, so tried to dump Win98 SE on over top.
For some time I thought I was successful, until I got to the final info-gathering stage for Caldera install, and discovered that Windows thought it was living on a 2 GB drive [actually the physical drive is 10 GB].
I wanted to end up with a 4GB partition for Windows, with 6 GB to play with Linux, thus giving me a Windows back-up machine and a neat new PC OS to keep messing with.
What obvious thing should I have known here?
Is Windows actually resident on "beginning' of hard drive, and simply not seeing Linux non-FAT partitions? [ I initiated Windows install process with Windows boot floppy made from my other PC, and asked it to FDISK, then said yes to bigger partition thingie - O my ignorance - and then, I thought, formatted drive for FAT-style DOS partition. Now I don't know what I set up!]

If I go ahead with Caldera install, will it find the Mandrake zone and install over it, or will it try to share?

PS, it is interesting that Mandrake 7.0 recognized my APTi Audio 16 card, but not Win98 SE!!!

i really cant quite follow what you are asking, but i'll take a shot at it...

windows does not see non-windows partitions. it should accurately determine the size of its own partition, however.

if you changed a partition size with fdisk after you installed linux, there is a good chance the linux partition got ruined.

all distros will "propose" a hard drive partition arrangement before installing. you should know what partitions you have things installed on and then configure the installation suggestion accordingly.

good luck! if you want to dump your caldera, try suse 8.2. it is the best distro i have tried ever!