Re: [aclug-L] Linux Installation

["Greg House" <ghouse@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sanjay Dhar wrote:


>I'm planning to install Linux on a machine that is already running Windows
>98. On issuing an fdisk command, I found that the hard drive(4.1 GB) is
>being utilized 100% as a DOS partition.
>
>I was wondering, if it would be possible to install Linux as is or would
>the drive need to be re-partitioned. I imagine that a re-partition would
>mean the loss of all the data on the drive.


If you just want to try Linux, some distributions will let you run out of a
DOS partition.  I know you can run Slackware that way.  Not that I recommend
it, but hey, it'll work.  If you stick with Linux, you'll definitely want to
repartition.

If you're going to try that, there's a utility called "fips"which will split
a DOS partition into two parts.  Before you use it, you defragment your DOS
partition to move everything to the start of the disk.  After that you can
run fipsand it'll split your partition into two.  After that, you can run
DOS fdisk and delete the second partition.  THEN you can run the
installation program of your favorite Linux distribution and it's fdisk (or
cfdisk, or Disk Druid, or whatEVER) can create new partition(s) where the
DOS space used to be.

As pfrostie said, backup anything you want to keep.  I had good luck with
fips, no problems at all, but they have all kinds of warnings about it, so
be careful.  Even if you're installing Linux on another hard drive, as long
as the original one is hooked up in the machine, you should have a good
backup of it 'cause it's real easy to put the wrong partition name into a
dumb setup utility and trash it.

Have fun,
Greg

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