I have tried to install mandriva power pack 10.2 from DVD.

I have booted into install fine it is just the partitioning i am getting stuck at.

I have a 30gig Hard Drive, about 8 gig is currently being used by windows XP pro with SP2. The rest is empty. I defragmented my main C: hard drive and then rebooted to install.

In the printout i got from the Mandriva Site it said its installation partiton program has four options and to go with option one.

However i only seem to have three options and the one it says to use (i believe its use existing partitions) isnt there.

Only
1. Erase All drive
2. Use Windows (i dont want to do this)
or Customize partitons.

I chose the third and it seems to be saying that the entire 30 gig is being used by windows. I chose automatic sizing and it said not enough free space (i have 20 gig how much does it need??)

So i couldnt install. So how do i set up a dual boot partiton on my main drive. Is there a way i can do this prior to Mandrake installation as i dont trust this. All i want is two dual booting partitions on my C: drive. A 17 gig for windows and 10 gig for mandriva. (as my drive says its 27 gig not 30 gig)

I have Norton Partition magic OEM that came with my external Hard drive but i havent installed it as my cisco course adviser advised against using it as he said he has had two many instances of it crashing and corrupting data, and he said to use Mandrivas internal partitioning program but it doesnt work.

So what do i do.

Final question. If i install norton partition magic and create two partitions. What will happent if i then uninstall norton Partition Magic. Will they go back to one partiton. Will they remain as they were (im hoping this option is the case), or will they both corrupt.

Thanks

This link should help you get an idea of what you are doing on the installation.
http://www.linuxloader.com/modules.p...&pid=18&page=4
http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/ntfsresize.html

You don't have an option for "install to existing partition" because it did not find any linux format type partitions, since you have not created any as of yet.

If I understand right you have a thirty gig drive that is one partition, and about 22gigs of it is empty but formatted as ntfs. So you are going to use windows. More specifically you are going to resize your windows partition to a smaller size, leaving empty unpartitioned space to create your linux partitions. Once you have free space you can auto allocate the space using Mandrake install cd.

Partition Magic can be used for shrinking your current ntfs partition to make room for linux, as well as Qtparted on a linux live cd such as Knoppix. Can't remember if Mandriva's partitioning utility can resize an ntfs partition or not as I have not had windows on my own pc's for a while now. Ok, just checked and Mandrake since version 9.1 has been able to resize ntfs nondestructivly. That is your option #2 that you said you don't want to use.

I suggest back up anything you really would not want to lose, and go for it. (I have never lost data due to repartitioning or using linux, although I learned the hard way due to hard drive failure)

Linux can resize a ntfs partition. I have done it on my computers.
Before you resize the partition you will definately need to defrag the partition.
That might be why it won't let you resize now if you disk is badly fragmented.

I have never had a problem with Mandrake creating and resizing partitions.

Hope this helps some

Thanks for everyones help, i really appreciate it.

Ive done it now.

Therefore this thread can be closed.

Anthony