Boot Partition

[Guest flyboy_2]

Does the boot partition need to be in the 1st 8mb of disk space?

I use Sytem Commander and I already have Win98 on one partition and WinXP on another. I would like to continue using System Commander rather than LILO or GRUB or one of these other boot utilities. System Commander does support Linux, but the New Operating System Wizard asks if the Boot Partion needs to be located in the 1st 8mb of disk space. Any ideas?

 

Thanks.

 

:shock:

[Cannonfodder]

From really really heavy experience with your situation... I would..

 

1. Lose System Commander. Depending on your version (mine was v5.5), it is not entirely compatible with linux extended. I've lost my entire hard drive on a number of occasions until I gave up on System Commander. It's wrong about the 8 meg limit. That's old..

 

2. Buy a second drive and put linux on this. This not only gives you more space for a cheap price but you will never have any issues surrounding your windows partitions mixed with your linux partitions. You can leave your system command installed but disabled until such time you need it.

 

3. If you use system commander, then it will simply boot lilo when you select linux. Then you have to select again. It's not worth it.

 

I seriously tried to stick to System Commander because I liked the application. Just so you know. After a while though, I realized that the only thing I needed it for was to install an OS that is not in the first partition (e.g. I have win2k in my extended partition). Even then I learned to do it without it.

 

If you stick with one drive and then make modifications to your partition table with System Commander, you stand to lose all your partitions after you install linux.

 

Also, if you stick to one drive, you need to do this..

 

hda1 - win98

hda5 - other win

 

Then install Mandrake in expert mode. When you create your linux partitions, make each partition Extended-82 (not the extended option). If you don't you are going to be so screwed by System commander.

 

My problems went away when I shelled out 80 bucks for a new hard drive and dropped System Commander.

[Guest flyboy_2]

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated.

 

I think I might leave this for a while now. I am hearing way too many horror stories about people loosing complete partitions, etc. Everything is working just fine at the moment in Win98 and WinXP, so I figure "if it aint broke, don't fix it"!

 

I have the "Live Demo" disk of SuSE Linux, so I suppose I can continue to play with it and poke around in Linux that way. Seems a lot safer.

 

I am using System Commander V7, and personally I think it works pretty good. If at all possible, it would be nice to keep it as a master boot and partition utility. I've been using it for a while now and I've had no problems (knock on wood).

 

Anyway, maybe I should just give up on the idea of having Linux on my PC at all. It seems too complicated, and to be honest I am not yet ready to make the complete migration over from Windows.

 

Thanks for the help though.

 

PS: What's with the signature? You an aviation enthusiast?

[Counterspy]

It is my view that all of these combo boot managers like System Commander and Boot Magic should have nothing to with a Linux system. They add an unpredictable level of complexity to the boot process which is badly designed by both Intel and Microsoft. Both Lilo and Grub have achieved a level of performance that makes these addons unnecessary.

 

Counterspy

[Cannonfodder]

One of the advantages of SystemCommander is that you can specify an OS that you want to install and it will make the partition (wherever it is) the C: drive. This really helps when installing different OS's. As far as the boot part of it, there's no advantage over lilo or grub.

 

It's up to you, but one thing to consider is that you can learn Mandrake Linux (or any linux) and not for the purpose of migrating but because you find it a challange. It's not everyone's challange but many users stay with windows and learn linux for fun. It's like becoming an automechanic :)

 

If you do decide to do so, I would just invest in the second drive or find an used hard drive for cheap. That way you don't have to worry about your first drive.

[Guest makra]

Hi,

 

I have succesfully installed mandrake linux 9.0 with this:

 

5 GB for Win2K (first partition)

42 GB Data (second partition, FAT32)

5 GB Linux partition

6 GB swap

lilo as boot manager

 

Seems to be, the /swap is far too big.

Do I need another partition for linux more ?

 

What is suitable for the system, when I have 12 GB for linux ?

How can I resize partitions, when nescescary ?

(I would try PM under windows to resize)

 

makra

[Cannonfodder]

Why don't you uninstall your linux and reinstall with the expert option. Boot off of CD1 and select expert install. When you get to the partition screen, you can

 

1. delete each linux partition.

2. Click Auto-configure and select the /usr option.

 

At this point, note the new partition sizes and mount points on a piece of paper. Your swap will probably be around 250 meg in size. The paper will help you later when you explore.

 

Then continue with the install.