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Re: Linux partition question



debian parisc wrote:
Hello,

although I've been reading this list for a few months now I haven't actually installed in on a i386 pc (although I have installed it on a HP Unix server - well smooth). I'm now read to install on my home PC, to ensure that my wife doesn't divorce me I need to make sure that I get it right. I'm going to resize my windows98 partition to free up 10GB on which I will put 2 logical partition of 5GB each (i'll probably run stable on one and testing on the other or maybe woody and mandrake). I'm going to use Partition Magic 7 to resize it. Having looked at the instructions on Powerquest's site it says this

"IMPORTANT! In most cases, the Windows partition and the Linux Ext2 partition must start below the 8 GB boundary to be bootable. However, if your system supports INT13 extensions, then Windows XP/2000, Windows Me, and some Linux distributions can boot beyond the 8 GB boundary. Check your system documentation to determine if your machine supports INT13 extensions."

Does that mean that if my Linux partitions are first I can't boot windows98? or if I put Windows first (10GB) I won't be able to boot linux? and what is INT13?

regards

Leo


The Windows 98 partition(s) should be first. Linux (Debian) doesn't care where it resides with the newer versions of LILO available in Debian Woody, but some Windows versions seem to be quite particular. If you use a boot loader like LILO or GRUB, you will be able to boot into either Windows or Linux.

You should take into considertion that you can only have 4 "primary" partitions on a HD. You should have at least one "swap" partition for your Linux installs. It can be shared between the two installs. Check and see if your Windows install is using more than one "primary" partition. If it is, then your plan will probably not work. Linux/Debian works OK when placed on "extended" partitions, so that is a way out.. if you need it.

Partition Magic after version 4.0 works great. I have used it here to resize and create Linux partitions many times.






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