Re: REQ: Newbie Qustion Re: Hard Drives, etc...

Charles Takacs <charles_takacs@xxxxxxxxxxxx>:

On my computer now I have 2 HDs

1. 10gb HD Win98
2. 15bg HD Linux RH9

It's not set up for dual boot. I use a floppy to boot into RH9.

I have arecently downloaded and burned it on CD
VMware Virtual Machine_FC5
I would like to try this But I do not have very much free space on my
curent Linux HD. Also I don't want to loose the Curent RH9.

What I want to do is Do delete The Win98 on the 1st HD and

BTW, in the following, I'm a little confused as to how your disks are
actually installed in your computer. It would help a lot to supply us
with the output of the following commands:

fdisk -l /dev/hdN

where "N" == a, b, c, and d. That will just list the partition table,
not touch it. If you don't have fdisk, try a "man -k fdisk" to see
what you do have (cfdisk?). Then "man cfdisk" will tell you how to
list them.

---------------------------------------------------

Blowing away Windows is a good choice. I'd just use fdisk in RH9 and
blow it away from there. As root in RH9:

fdisk /dev/hda
p

That should list the partitions. Now, type "m" for the list of
commands. One of them's "remove" (r?). That'll ask you for the
partition number. Tell it "1", then "w" to write the ptn table and
exit. Windows is now gone. You can now boot with the FC install
disk, or skip down to where I describe creating ptns you can use with
RH9. I'd suggest going with FC instead of RH9, assuming FC is newer
than RH9 (sorry, I don't use FC or RH so I don't know). Better would
be Mepis or Ubuntu.

Install VMware and Fedora-5 on this disk.

However I am not sure of The procedure

How do I setup the HD 1 so It doesnt Destroy the 2nd Hd linux. ??

When the installer comes up with a list of drives to install into,
tell it NOT to use the second drive. Use only the first drive
(/dev/hda ?).

When it gets to installing a boot manager (grub, lilo), it may notice
you also have RH9 installed and offer to add it to the list of
bootable operating systems. Say yes.

To have more Space can I add The #1 HD to My curent Linux wich is on
the 2nd HD ??

You could, if you don't install FC on it.

If I do this then:
a. How do I Format and monunt this

fdisk /dev/hda
n # new

Now tell it the size you want. It'll first ask "primary" or "logical"
partition. Say primary. Then it asks for starting sector, tell it
the beginning. Ending sector/size, say "+XM" or "+XG" where "X" ==
the number of MB or Gb you want it to use.

You may have up to four Primary partitions, or three Primary's and an
"Extended" partition. In an Extended ptn, you can have as many
"Logical" ptns as you have space for.

Once you've made ptns:

mkfs -t ext2 /dev/hdaN

where "N" == the new partiton's number. You could choose "-t ext3" or
"-t reiserfs" but I advise against exotic ptn types for personal
machines.

To mount the ptn, create a directory for its mountpoint:

mkdir /blah

Now:

mount -t ext2 /dev/hdaN /blah

To preserve that across reboots and have it automatically mounted at
boot, add it to /etc/fstab.

b. How do I install VMware and FC-5 but still keep RH9

Tell the FC-5 installer NOT to use /dev/hdX where X == b, c, or d.

c. Do I need to SetUp the MBR for a dual boot For RH9 and FC5

It's a lot simpler. Floppies are highly unreliable.

I have tried to find some reading material regarding this subject
But so far I could find anything.

Personally, I'd go with another distro, but that's just me. I'd also
get a Knoppix disk to use as a rescue disk. If FC installs but fails
to boot, boot knoppix CD and fix it.

Another great tool is SystemRescueCD, available for both PC and Mac.
That I know has fdisk on it since I just used it to reinstall Debian
Sarge. I hate the partition tool in the Debian installer and with
SRCD, I don't have to use it. :-)


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