Guest nutsmuggler Posted August 26, 2004 Report Share Posted August 26, 2004 (edited) Hi folks. I've got a P4 1,5 Ghz, with a 80 Gb Hard disk. I've got just 1 partition, but I'm going to use partition magic to make room for linux. I think I'll make more than one primary aprtition; together with windows I'd like to install mandrake (of course :-) and maybe Suse or Slackware... So Partition magic will be very handy. This will be more or less my HD scheme: - 50 Mb FAT partitoin for Boot magic - 40 Gb windows - 40 Gb Document windows - 10 Gb Mandrake - 10 Gb for another distro... Yes I know, there are 20 Gb left, but I'll think about it... Now, 2 questions: -Will I have to meake a swap partition for linux, or will mandrake do it by itself during the installation? - Can I keep on using boot magic instead of lilo or grub? WHich procedure shopuld I follow to install mandrake without overriding boot magic? Cheers, and thanks in advance, Davide Edited August 26, 2004 by nutsmuggler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted August 26, 2004 Report Share Posted August 26, 2004 Welcome! Sure you can. I've used BTmagic for years and never had a partition for it :o Make all other partitions extended leaving only win a primary. When asked during install (have BTmagic disabled), and install the linux bootloader to the root partition / and not the mbr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nutsmuggler Posted August 26, 2004 Report Share Posted August 26, 2004 Ehm sorry, BTmagic won't install unless on a FAT partition... I guess I have to create such a partition as well...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted August 26, 2004 Report Share Posted August 26, 2004 This will be more or less my HD scheme:- 50 Mb FAT partitoin for Boot magic - 40 Gb windows - 40 Gb Document windows - 10 Gb Mandrake - 10 Gb for another distro... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> you have a fat, or is that ntfs?....you didn't specify. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nutsmuggler Posted August 26, 2004 Report Share Posted August 26, 2004 OOPs, sorry, the main windiws partition is a NFTS..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpatrick Posted August 27, 2004 Report Share Posted August 27, 2004 You really don't need boot magic and it frequently causes complications. All linux distros come with a boot loader(either lilo or grub) capable of booting both windows and linux. When you first boot up you get a boot selection sccreen from which you can choose to boot either windows or linux. Also, I'd use PM to resize or create your windows partition but I wouldn't recommend it for making your linux partitions. As a general rule, you should use the OS's native partitioning utilities to create the partitions that you will install the OS on. Windows and linux handle partitions differently and this can cause problems. The easiest way is to create the partition that you want to install windows on with PM and install windows first on that partition leaving the rest of the space unallocated. When you install mandrake, choose the option to install on the unallocated space and mdk will partition and format the space for you. If you fire up PM from windows after the linux install it will complain that there is something wrong with the linux partitions and offer to correct it. Don't let it. Usually nothing happens, but it can take out the partition from linux's perspective and you frequently have problems booting into linux afterwards because PM shifts the linux partitions around a bit which can throw off your linux boot loader. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted August 27, 2004 Report Share Posted August 27, 2004 (edited) In 3.5 years, not once have I lost anything when using PM and BTmagic. I have lost installs, data, whatever.....EVERYTIME I've used diskdrake and linux bootloaders in the mbr. Just my experience....take it or leave it.....oh, and look at all the post on the board ;) Edited August 27, 2004 by bvc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpatrick Posted August 27, 2004 Report Share Posted August 27, 2004 My experience is just the opposite. I've never lost anything using diskdrake or lilo in over 4 years but I have had PM screw up linux partitions. If you use any partitioning utility long enough it will screw up eventually; that's why everyone I've ever seen tells you to backup your data first. Resizing partitions is the highest risk activity for all partitioning utilities. I try to avoid it as much as possible. The linux fdisk man page specifically advises that you use the OS native partitioning utilities when installing any OS. They all deal with partitions a little differently and it can and does cause problems on rare, and sometimes not so rare, occasions. YMMV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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