Complete newbies use Linux easily

[trommaster]

running win 2k/xp?

[farfrompuken]

Yup, got XP. Think I need to cough up for partitionmagic, or the equivalent.
Is there an easy to use freeware partition tool, or do I have to shell out the £50 for PartitionMagic? Seems silly to pay that much for a tool that I would rarely use.

Was under the (false) impression that the software provided with Red Hat 9.0 would suffice.
At least I roughly know where I'm headed now......

[babbing]

go to download.com My personal favorite is Bootit NG, but there are a few others.

[shahan01]

a much easier way would to install windows version first like XP or 2000. then through disk manager utility in both of these two OS, you can partition ur HD, and then install Linux..... let one of ur HD partition be free space or in other words 'unformatted' , then just slip in the linux CD and let it do the trick !

[SkyNet]

You can also use linux to partition your HDD. If you're doing a clean install of both OS's then you could boot-up with the Linux CD, and use fdisk or cfdisk to create, and format your partitions, then install Win32 first, followed by Linux afterward. Windows hates to be 2nd in anything.

[trommaster]

skynet: its just that the win drive is ntfs5, and only mandrake can resize that, and im not sure if i'd trust it

[farfrompuken]

Shahan;

Showing my ability/knowledge here.....

Disk Manager. XP. Where/how?

thanks

[babbing]

Why not just alot a certain amount of space to windows when you install it and move on from there?

[sujoki]

yeah, i find everything is more "stable" if you do it from scratch, partition magic you may only use once or twice, but its a lifesaver when its there when you need it. i also suggest using the boot into linux cfdsik format install windows install linux way.

[Syn]

I've always used the MDK install cd to partition. When I did My original table, clean disk, started with XP, told its partition thing to separate off just enough that it needed for the OS [3.5~4GB] and did the remaining partitioning when I installled MDK, formatted the FAT's in XP.
About MDK and NTFS resizing. The read support is very nice, although I haven't seen the resizing available yet, at least in anything more than alpha stages. However, I haven't had a problem resizing a FAT partition via MDK.
I've seen mumblings about ext partitions being able to be read in winblows... anyone know about that? [Not like it does Me alot of good, but nice to know nonetheless]