Clem;
I'm only a few days old into Linux, too.. so am not taking expert status
here but your situation is not unlike mine. I can't say that this is the
right way, the best way or even the safest way but here's how I did it. I
used a 1986 copy of Partition Magic (v. 3.0; it's what I had and the new
version is $65 or better) to reduce the size of my existing partitions.
This put free space in essentially unusable areas of the HD. Then, I moved
what remained of the drives (you can't move the free space, at least in the
version I used) to consolidate the free space and closed PM. When I
rebooted Windows, it saw the resized drives but the "lost" free space was
unaccounted for anywhere. My 8.1 GB drive is now just under 6 GB to
Windows.
When I got to the point of the Linux install, I used the expert mode (in
other installations, I read that option is called DiskDrake) and began by
making a 128 MB swap drive. I also made 2 others with the bulk of the 2 GB
I still had free. Out of curiosity, I looked at what I'd done later in PM
again. It saw the 3 new little drives and noted them as "other" in the
legend. A newer version of PM might know what to call them. Windows saw
nothing of the space or of the drives that Linux made.
To my way of thinking, this put the data I had in the least jeopardy (aside
from the risk of having used software to partition that was designed for
Win95) and it was in a way that made sense to me. Partly because I didn't
understand fully what Linux needed, I didn't like the idea of Windows and
Linux being on the same virtual drive even if a new partition was
installed. I don't care to have my peas and mashed potatoes commingling on
the same plate with gravy or something slathered over all, either. ;) In
retrospect, I'm glad I did it the way I did it but at the same time, if it
made better sense to increase my Windows drive than to create the space
elsewhere, I wouldn't be as afraid to do it. I hope there is something you
can use here.
Dave
Clem wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I'm a very newbie Linux-Mandrake user who wants to know what is the best
> way to increase the size of my Windows Partition (I played around with
> RedHat a while ago, and set up a 7 GB Windows and a 13 GB RH partition -
> but most of my memory intensive applications are in Windows).
>
> Is it possible to use Diskdrake to remove the Linux partitions, then
> increase the size of my Windows partition, and then put the Linux ones back
> on?
>
> Or is there a better way of doing it?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Clem
--
Dave Burrows
741 Cleveland Road
Washington, PA 15301
USA
