| I've found a decent buy on a new PC with Linux
| ( actually Linspire, used to be Lindows ) installed.
|
| Can anybody recommend software to partition the hard drive
| and and set up a dual boot so I can also install Windows XP?
|
| I use too much Windows software at this time
| to make a cold-turkey switch to Linux.
Steve ....
I use a 5.5 year-old Compaq machine
that dual boots Win98_SE & Debian GNU/Linux ....
For disk partitioning the advice I've most often seen
in the Linux NewsGroups and which worked for me
is ....
o Use Windows tools for making Windows partitions
o Use Linux tools for making Linux partitions
For the Windows partitions ....
o Win_98 boot floppy disk ....
o fdisk
For the Linux partitions ....
o System Rescue CD
http://www.sysresccd.org/
o cfdisk
The System Rescue CD runs a distribution of Gentoo Linux
and also contains a partitioning tool called qt-parted
that runs in a GUI ....
However, to me the screen-based cfdisk tool
seems to be a bit simpler and easier to use ....
I have a 2-drive system with Windows partitions only
on the first drive and with both Windows and Linux
partitions on the second drive ....
1st HDD ... 4 GB
2nd HDD ... 30 GB
From Linux the partitions look this ....
Filesystem Mounted Used Size Use% Avail
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c 679M 4.1G 17% 3.4G
/dev/hdb5 /mnt/win_d 657M 1.5G 44% 839M
/dev/hdb6 /mnt/win_e 37M 1.5G 3% 1.5G
/dev/hdb7 /mnt/win_f 225M 1.5G 16% 1.3G
/dev/hdb8 /mnt/win_g 693M 2.2G 32% 1.5G
/dev/hdb9 /mnt/win_h 629M 2.2G 29% 1.6G
/dev/hdb10 /mnt/win_i 2.2G 3.2G 70% 988M
/dev/hdb11 /mnt/win_j 587M 2.2G 27% 1.6G
/dev/hdb12 /mnt/win_k 1.5G 2.2G 68% 717M
/dev/hdb13 /mnt/win_l 1.8G 3.2G 56% 1.5G
/dev/hdb14 / 144M 581M 27% 407M
/dev/hdb16 /usr 2.1G 3.3G 67% 1.1G
/dev/hdb17 /usr/local 176M 1.4G 14% 1.1G
/dev/hdb18 /home 356M 897M 42% 494M
/dev/hdb19 /var 703M 2.2G 35% 1.4G
/dev/hdb20 /tmp 8.2M 618M 2% 577M
Windows designates different partitions
via drive letters .... c: d: e: .... l:
and there is no apparent differentiation
between drives ....
Linux designates different drives with letters
and different partitions with numbers....
hda1 : 1st drive .... partition 1
hdb14 : 2nd drive .... partition 14
The Windows partitions hda1, hdb5 - hdb13
were formatted with FAT32 file systems
and I read/write to all of them regularly
from Linux with no problems at all ....
The Linux partitions hdb14 - hdb20
were formatted with ext3 file systems ....
