Partitioning

[kornp]

Okay, here's the deal, I currently have a 8.5 gig HD all winblows that i want to split about 4.5 / 4.0 or 5.5 / 3.0 linux / m$ respectively. I don't want to lose the data on my win partition. I have the slackware CD and will be making a boot disk from it. so...

1) How can I partition it without losing my data

2) can I easily resize my partitions later

3) what would you guys suggest for my linux partitions,
swap /boot /
swap /
swap / /etc /boot /home

???

any input appreciated.

[quote author=kornp link=board=1;threadid=4644;start=0#46365 date=1029828091]
1) How can I partition it without losing my data
[/quote]
Partition Magic. it's a tool for windows and it lets u do a lot of stuff with partitions while keeping the data intact (or at least trying very hard too)

2) can I easily resize my partitions later

u can with Partition Magic but i advise u not to do that. resizing your partitions may fuck up your bootloader.

3) what would you guys suggest for my linux partitions,
swap /boot /
swap /
swap / /etc /boot /home

is it just gonna be a desktop system?
if so, just get a swap partition and a / partition. that's how i do it. if it's for a server then there are advantages to having multiple partitions but i really don't see the point if it's just a desktop system.

[Funky Data]

I have very good success with Parition Magic, its a handy little program. I havn't seen any problems with resizing and bootloaders, but i'm sure Ralinx must have more experience than I. PM is really your only choice before doing a backup and whiping the drive.

[popcorn]

IIRC you'll need Partition Magic 7 to resize active partitions. What version of doze is it (and more importantly what file system).

I have seen disks hosed using PMagic, but that was NTFS5.1 (or what ever XPs FS is).

Are you going to be chopping and changing distros? if so you might want to put /home on a seperate partition, so you can keep all your stuff when you fancy a change.

[quote author=Funky Data link=board=1;threadid=4644;start=0#46373 date=1029844940]
I havn't seen any problems with resizing and bootloaders, but i'm sure Ralinx must have more experience than I.
[/quote]

i've only seen it happen once, but that's more than i want

[pwrhouse]

A couple more programs you could use are fips and GNUParted. I have used fips several times with no problems and I heard GNUParted is really good but I have never gotten a chance to use it.
Best of all they are both free, and Slackware used to include fips on the install CD.

[kornp]

to answer above questions, it's win 98 and it will just be a workstation.

It looks to me like partition magic is my best option, I think one of my friends has it, if not it looks like it's time for a download. Even if it does hose my win partition, I would really care THAT much, it's been gimping up lately (typical windows) and I have nothing important on it.

Thanx for all the input guys, I should be getting slack going once I get Partition Magic.

[Schotty]

[quote author=popcorn link=board=1;threadid=4644;start=0#46377 date=1029847244]
Are you going to be chopping and changing distros? if so you might want to put /home on a seperate partition, so you can keep all your stuff when you fancy a change.
[/quote]

Better yet -- you can simply format the / partition and not worry about the data (/home) drive getting touched. This is a great advantage to a newbie who may bork the system. You can save all of your packages/tarballs on your home and when a problem/upgrade occurs.

I recommend using the four partition technique for home users -- the swap,/, /boot, and /home. My drive at home is a 40Gigger, with a 50MB boot, 20G home, 512 MB swap (I use the exact as my ram), and the rest /.

HTH