Partitioning with winderz and mandrake

[swamp-fox]

I decided to dual boot with winxp and mandrake 8.2. I have 20gb hdd. When I formatted and let windows make partition I guess I wasnt paying attention and it only made 1.9 gb partition for xp now I have 87 mb of free space(which is about useless). I also just let mandrake make its own partition. I don't know the size of that one yet. I have to shut down to look. Is there anyway to give XP more room or is another format and repartition and reinstall my only choice.

Swamp

EDIT: Mandrake has 3 partitions one is about 14.5gb one is 243mb(swap file) and one is 3gb, so I am left with 1.9gb for winxp

[Phynix]

If XP is your primary, you can probably use a program such as Partition Magic to non-destructively repartition. However, you'll lose the mandrake partition. Well, I havn't used that program in years, so unless things have changed and it can do amazing things these days, you'll have to reinstall Mandrake. Atleast you won't have to install XP as well.

I think there is a non-destructive partitioner for linux as well, I'm not sure what it's name is anymore. I wouldn't suggest using it to add onto a windows partition anyway.

[swamp-fox]

any more idea's before I hit the big FORMAT\C: button

[newbie~wan]

Partition Magic goes for about $60 I think. If you're like me, $60 is worth more to you than an hour or two of your time, so I suggest you go ahead and repartition.

BTW, to save you time, you might as well partition first, then reformat, and that I think formatting is always required after partitioning anyway. Keep in mind that linux really doesnt need that much room, and that it can access FAT32 partitions (I think ntfs access is still experimental - not sure).

[swamp-fox]

I have a partition magic trial disc from maximum pc but it say's it wont work in winxp. I tried to fdisk and I can't delete any of the partition's. If I try to delete logical dos partition it says "can't delete with extended dos partition". And if I try to delete extended dos partition it say's "can't delete ext dos partion with logical dos partition". I think I've tried every option on fdisk and can't do anything. I did format C and am trying to install winxp again and see if I can find something to re-partition that will work with XP. I hate when I get in over my head. LOL but I sure do learn a lot, I just go about it the hard way.

edit: as I am installing xp it has a partition program so maybe I am ok now I put 15 gb for xp and gonna save 5gb for linux.

[Xeroid]

How to Remove Linux and Install Windows XP (Q314458)

See if this helps. Dual booting XP & Mandrake works great. I'm sure after you get partitioned set up to suit you you'll enjoy Mandrake. If you could get Mandrake off and reinstall XP, leave enough space for Mandrake when you reinstall XP.

Mike

[swamp-fox]

Thanks,Yeah I was doing good this morning playing around with mandrake . Then I went to download a few things in winxp and I didn't have any space left to do anything. I am reinstalling xp then mandrake as I type this on another puter. I love my kvm switch.

swamp

[Xeroid]

[swamp-fox]

Boy this isn't fun anymore. I am installing winXp for third time today. First time everything was good Had xp and mandrake working fine however XP only had 1.9gb partition,so couldn't do much with that. Now everytime I try to get mandrake on after XP It want's to take the whole hdd. There is supposed to be a partition wizard in mandrake but I can never find it. I'm almost finished installing XP again after fdisk and formatting again. Heeeeeeeeeeelllllllpppppppp me before it's tooo late.


Swamped again

[Xeroid]

How big is your XP partition this time?

Mike

[Xeroid]

HERE is the instructions for the Mandrake partitioning wizzard.

Mike

[swamp-fox]

I believe I set it at 14990, right at 15gb anyway and left 5 gb for mandrake but haven't got up courage to install mandrake again. Let me get another smirnoff ice and I'll be alright. I had some problems with my mouse and was having to arrow up arrow down. That wasn't helping anything. I'm gonna try your link now and be back.

thanks Swamp.

Edit: OK I read all those with the install disk. I guess I need to use existing partition. I think I tried them all except erase

[Xeroid]

The empty partition should show up in the graph as white. (HERE) You should just be able to select it and hit auto allocate like the demo shows.

Mike

[swamp-fox]

Yes I remember that. I couldn't ever highlight it. my mouse wasn't working and everything would highlight except that. I kept having to use the arrow's and enter for the whole install. I finally got the mouse working mostly. I got XP installed on 15gb and mandrake on about 5gb Thanks for all the help. I've been at it about 15 hours today I guess. Only bug so far is scroll wheel won't work on mouse and been surfing linux forum's looking for fix. Been surfing with mandrake and xp for couple hours now. Oh btw I used the partition magic (trial version) came with maximum-pc magazine and it worked like a charm so far. I love free trials.


Swamp

[Xeroid]

[swamp-fox]

New problem with laptop trying the same dual boot. XP and mandrake. I try to use partition magic and it won't create new partition, resize partition or anything. When I try to Install Mandrade, It starts installing fine but when it gets to The partition part it either want's to "erase entire disk or custom and when I click on drive and try to autoallocate It's telling me not enough room. It seems when I click on options I'm not getting all the options I should be getting

edit: It doesn't give me the option of "using the existing partition or using the existing free space just "Erase entire disk or custom disk partition" so I clik on custom and the only option's are Mount point, Resize, or Delete.

swamp

Udate: I am installing now. I was scared to clicck on the resize button because it only showed the one drive and said it would erase all data on drive but I did it anyway as I couldn't figure any other options. Will see in little while if I lost window's. Gotta go will get back on tonight after I get to atlanta swamp

[Scott Tiger]

The easiest way to have done this is to set up the XP partition to the size you want when installing XP. It asks you what drive and what you want to make the partition. Make the partiton 10 gigs or whatever, doesn't matter so long as you leave room for Mandrake.

When you install Mandrake tell it to use up the unformatted space. You shouldn't have to resize your partitions.

Hope that helps. Good luck

[Xeroid]

Originally posted by Scott Tiger
The easiest way to have done this is to set up the XP partition to the size you want when installing XP. It asks you what drive and what you want to make the partition. Make the partiton 10 gigs or whatever, doesn't matter so long as you leave room for Mandrake.

When you install Mandrake tell it to use up the unformatted space. You shouldn't have to resize your partitions.

Hope that helps. Good luck

That's what I was trying to say in my first post in this thread.

If you could get Mandrake off and reinstall XP, leave enough space for Mandrake when you reinstall XP.

Although I didn't express myself as clearly as Scott.

Mike

[swamp-fox]

Well it messed up windows partition but mandrake was working. I just had to reinstall win-xp, it is restore disc's so I have no options except format whole drive, or what size to partition to chose. I even called toshiba and they said see if partition magic had a patch or update that would work with XP (although I did finally get it to work on other computer with xp). Unless he didn't know what to do either. I will try to use partition magic again and will check on a patch.

Thanks

swamp