Partitioning for new distro install

[Devin Whalen]

Hey,

> hda1 primary 200MB /boot
> hda2 primary (whatever you want for windows) WinXP
> hda3 primary (whatever you want to Linux) /
> hda4 primary (extended)
> hda5   extended 100MB /fat32 AKA D:
> hda6   extended (about 2x your system memory, at least 256MB) swap

I would also suggest adding a /home partition.  It makes upgrading a lot
easier because you don't have to worry about losing or backing up all
you stuff before upgrading.  Especially since newer linux versions come
out quite often!

> After partitioning, follow these steps:
> 1) mark hda2 as the bootable partition using linux fdisk and install
> windows.
> 2) back to linux install, fdisk again and mark hda1 bootable.
> 3) install lilo or grub or whatever boot load you're using into hda1's
> boot sector, NOT the MBR.
> 
> Reason for this: next time you try installing or upgrading or even
> breathing on windows it'll skank your bootloader if it's in MBR. If your
> boatloader is in hda1 instead, you just fdisk and change the bootable
> tag. Problem solved.

This is a great tip Andrew.  I recently had to reinstall my XP partition
and lost lilo.  I will have to remember that for next time :)

Later


-- 
Devin Whalen
Programmer
Synaptic Vision Inc
Phone-(416) 539-0801
Fax- (416) 539-8280
1179A King St. West
Toronto, Ontario
Suite 309 M6K 3C5
Home-(416) 653-3982
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml