Re: How to partition a hard drive for Windows XP and Linux...

From: Jean-David Beyer (jdbeyer_at_exit109.com)
Date: 09/20/04 

Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2004 21:46:54 -0400

anc wrote:
> Jean-David Beyer wrote:
>
>
>>I want to put an additional EIDE hard drive into an existing machine with
>>two SCSI hard drives already in it. I do not need to preserve anything on
>>any of the drives. I can easily restore anything I need for Fedora from
>>backup tapes, and the little I have from a now-decommissioned Windows 95
>>machine is on floppy disks and on a hard drive of another machine that is
>>networked to the one in question.
>>
>>Normally, I would install Windows XP (I have a CD-ROM with it on, and a
>>license for it) first, and then install Linux (probably Fedora). But I do
>>not want my installation of XP to gobble up the entire EIDE hard drive, so
>>I want to do this with the Linux fdisk. I expect to do something like
>>this:
>>
>>Linux partition Name Type Code Part.Type Question
>>/dev/hda1 C: NTFS 7 Primary Is 7 the correct code?
>>/dev/hda2 f Extended Should this be Code 5?
>>/dev/hda5 /boot ext2 83 Extended
>>/dev/hda6 D: FAT32 b Extended Is this R/W by Linux?
>>/dev/hda7 / ext3 83 Extended
>>/dev/hda8 swap 82 Extended
>>etc.
>>
>>My hope is that the XP installer will obey the existing partition table
>>and put everything into /dev/hda1 and preferably initializing /dev/hda6.
>>
>>Then I can just install Fedora to use the rest of /dev/hda and all of
>>/dev/sda and /dev/sdb.
>>
>>Is there anything I am doing wrong? Am I overlooking something? Does the
>>XP installer let me determine the partitions and their sizes (at least for
>>XP), and I can ignore all this?
>>
>
>
>
> Windows always liked the first partition. So while it is possible to
> partition the scheme you've chosen I would not recommend it. Instead
> I would create 2 primary partitions one ntfs and one fat32 for windows,
> then create your extended partition and install linux on it.
> So for your EIDE drive I would recommend:
>
> dev/hda1 ntfs 7 primary (Win XP)
> dev/hda2 fat32 b primary (windows)
> dev/hda3 5 (extended)
> dev/hda5 /boot 83 ext2
> dev/hda6 / 83 ext3
> dev/hda8 /swap 82 swap
>
> This way the entire extended partition is used by linux and windows takes
> the first 2 promary partitions. Your XP will see your other windows OS but
> not linux. Linux can read both your windows partitions, providing you set
> options in /etc/fstab.
> You can install Fedora as well onto your scsi drives. Extended partition is
> type 5. You need to install your windows first (98 or me) then XP so that XP
> can boot your other windows.
>
>
Actually, I will have no other windows (no 95, no 98, no me). Enough is
enough and too much is plenty! I only want windows at all so I can run
Quicken and TurboTax. I have XP home on CD-ROM, with a license, which is
too dumb to even run both processors in the box, though Linux has no
trouble running them both.

So I want to run Fedora most of the time, and Windows XP only when I must.
No other operating systems.

There are several different codes for the (extended) partition. I know of
0x05, 0x0f, 0x85. There may be more. _I wonder which is the best choice._

In the old days, I noticed 0x05 was used. In the last few years, I have
been seeing 0x0f. In the post previous to yours from Dave Uhring, he
suggests using 0x85.

If I follow his advice, roughly, I would think the thing to do is for me
to use tomsrtbt to wipe the "new" hard drive clean and just put

/dev/hda1 ntfs 0x07 primary Win CP
/dev/hda2 fat32 0x0b primary (Win CP to share with Linux)
/dev/hda3 0x85 (extended Linux) on it.

Then install XP, hoping its installer would put most everything on hda1
and format hda2 as a fat32, and preferably leave the other disks alone,
though I do not think I care what it does with the rest, provided it does
not care when I redo them when I install Fedora.

Then install Fedora (and restore whatever files I need from my backup
tapes of the old RHL 9 system I just decommissioned). 

-- 
   .~.  Jean-David Beyer           Registered Linux User 85642.
   /V\                             Registered Machine   241939.
  /( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey     http://counter.li.org
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