LittleJohn Posted May 22, 2004 Report Share Posted May 22, 2004 (edited) I can't get windows to let me partition down so I can install mandrak like it needs to be. Any clues? Edited May 23, 2004 by LittleJohn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Scrimpshire Posted May 22, 2004 Report Share Posted May 22, 2004 Uh, you might want to make your title a little more descriptive to attract better viewers to this topic. (You can do that by editing your first post. :P) Anyway, I know that you have XP as the other OS and that you've already turned the paging file off, rebooted and defragged, but the rest of the world doesn't know. ;) I didn't think yesterday to get you to turn off System Restore before turning the paging file off. I'm not even sure if that makes a difference. Maybe someone more knowledgable can answer that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustpuppy Posted May 22, 2004 Report Share Posted May 22, 2004 I'm obviously not a 'better viewer' as I clicked the title anyway, but here's my 2 eurocents... I also had problems with the partitions setting up a dual boot with XP... how exactly did the problem show itself? Was it on installing Mandrake (btw, which flavour?), at the DrakX partitioning bit? If so, what exactly happened? If it was there I might be able to help... I'll dig out my notes, I remember I had to do something inexplicable to get it to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleJohn Posted May 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 Okay it happens when I boot up with the mandrake (steve can you tell me what version it is) cd. When I click on the "custom partition" tab it goes to that screen. The partitions are already set up apparently and also I can't size them down to where I need them to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidzoo Posted May 23, 2004 Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 Which partitions are you trying to resize? Are they the Windows partitions or the Linux partitions? If Windows, are they Fat32 or NTFS? If they're NTFS, you'll probably need to use something like Partition Magic (7 or higher) to resize the partitions and make room for the new Linux Partitions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustpuppy Posted May 23, 2004 Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 The partitions are already set up apparently and also I can't size them down to where I need them to be. Eh? If you've just had an XP box before now, you should just have a single NTFS partition. Are you checking the option 'use the free space on the windows partition' at this screen? Is it then giving an error message? Well, here's what worked for me when that happened. When it returns the error (windows partition too fragmented), go into 'expert' mode (button down the bottom of the screen that tells you the error). Click on the windows partition (mine was called hda) and compress it as far as it will go. For me, this was not really any change at all, but when I then went back and told it to use free space on windows it worked. I have no idea why. I ended up with a 37GB windows partition and 23 linux. Maybe it'll work again... :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleJohn Posted May 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 Ah, I see. No I was clicking on "custom partitioning" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted May 23, 2004 Report Share Posted May 23, 2004 Whatever you do... Make sure you backup your important data first including your c:\documents & settings folder for your user account. Just in case ;) Additionally, I usually recommend that you obtain a second hard drive to install linux on. It's much safer for your XP installation and kinda guarantees that you will not make a mistake with your linux partitions or attempt to do something that is not compatible.. yes it can happen! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustpuppy Posted May 24, 2004 Report Share Posted May 24, 2004 Ah, I see. No I was clicking on "custom partitioning" So what partitions do you have? And what do you want to end up with If you've got one NTFS partition at the start, give it a go allowing it to use the windows partition. This also gives windows what it needs to function, which I found was about double the space that the data took up! Of course, the best & easiest way to do things is as cannonfodder said and get another hard drive... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland Posted May 24, 2004 Report Share Posted May 24, 2004 The partitions are already set up apparently and also I can't size them down to where I need them to be. Be aware that with DrakX partitioning you can NOT move the beginning of a partition. For partitionning a disk with valuable data, I advice you to use something like Partition Magic. DrakX partitioning is fine but for simple things. Carefull with it (my experience) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.