# Help liberate me from Windows!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2002, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873 "2002-12-15T08:58:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/21 "2002-12-17T19:38:18Z")
Ok **Giraffe** , thats making some sense. How would I go about doing that in disk druid? I’ve been googling like mad, yet not much luck today. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/22 "2002-12-17T20:03:17Z")
Disk Druid can’t actually create windows partitions… you’ll need to use some other partitioning util (like fips) to create a dummy partition for Linux first. You’ll then delete that dummy partition in Disk Druid and use the freed space to create the /, swap, and kernel partitions for Linux. I spent a good two days trying to figure the above out, so don’t feel too bad. It’s not exactly obvious to people like me who don’t RTFM. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/23 "2002-12-17T20:04:30Z")
I installed redhat 8 last week. I have 2 hard drives hda is the windows partition. hdb has the swap, /, /boot partitions. I could in the redhat install program, where I set up the linux partitions, click on the hda1 partition and give it a mount point I chose /win2k. In linux I can cd to win2k and all the subdirectories. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/24 "2002-12-17T21:05:33Z")
I was under the assumption I could do everything in disk druid. My drive isn’t even reformatted, should I do that? How about I go back to Win98, run fdisk and give the drive a 30gig fat32 partition, run RH install again, and use druid to partition a 9gig ext2 and 1 gig swap? If anyone has a second and could outline the steps (briefly, I know you all are busy), it would be tremendously appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![sweepkick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@sweepkick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweepkick)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/25 "2002-12-17T22:05:32Z")
You can only have a maximum of 4 primary partitions on a drive. If you need more than 4 partitions on a drive, you can have up to 3 primary partitions and an “extended partition”. An extended partition acts somewhat as it’s own drive with it’s own partitions. You can create an unlimited number of partitions within the extended partition. Redhat has an explaination on their website [here.](http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-7.2-Manual/itanium-install-guide/ch-partitions.html#S2-PARTITIONS-OVERVIEW-EXTENDED) Unless you have compelling reason to create an extended partition, I wouldn’t bother with it. As far as Disk Druid and FAT32 partitions go, i’ve been reading articles on usenet from people having problems creating a FAT32 partition \> 2gig with it, which seems odd to me because the limit of a FAT16 FS is 2 gig, FAT32 should be theoretically around 2 terabytes. Perhaps it’s a problem with disk druid itself. At any rate, a microsoft article explaining limitations of FAT32 can be found [here](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q184006) At this point i’d recommend trying the installation again, and just creating the 9-gig ext3 partition for ‘/’ and 1 gig partition for swap, completing the install of Redhat, booting into linux, and using the linux command line ‘fdisk’ to add the FAT32 partition as such: as root: #fdisk /dev/hdb p \ (print out the partition table, you should see your linux native partition and linux swap partition) n \ (new partition) p \ (create primary partition) 3 \ (partition #3) \ (accept the default start cylinder) enter last available cylinder you should see your new 30 gig partition when entering ‘p’ again… it will be type ‘linux’ so change it as such: t \ (change a partition type) 3 \ (change partition #3) b \ (change it to type ‘b’, which is FAT32) printing out the partition table again, you’ll see that the type for your partition has changed. you can now write out the partition table by typing ‘w’. You can now reboot into Windows and format the 30-gig ‘E’ drive and move your files back. You can mount the 30 gig windows data partition under linux by creating a mount point in ‘/’ eg: #mkdir /WindowsData Then adding the following line into the file /etc/fstab: /dev/hdb3 /WindowsData vfat defaults 0 0 Issue the command “mount /WindowsData”. You can now share data between Linux and the Windows ‘E’ drive. HTH, sweep ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/26 "2002-12-17T22:07:37Z")
Also should I defrag my C drive before attempting this? Is there any chance something could have floated over to the D drive, and would get nuked when I repartition? I removed all the folders from D drive, so nothing should be on there, but OTOH I’m an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/27 "2002-12-17T22:09:32Z")
Thanks much **Sweep** ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/28 "2002-12-17T22:19:00Z")
Should the 9 gig be ext2 or ext3? ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/29 "2002-12-17T22:26:56Z")
Redhat recommends ext3: > **[Support](https://www.redhat.com/en/services/support)** > > Whether you need issue resolution or just advice, Red Hat Support provides tools and resources designed to help you find success on your IT journey. The only drawback I’ve seen so far is that the shred utility doesn’t seem to work properly, but it could just be me. ---
**Author:** ![sweepkick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@sweepkick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweepkick)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/30 "2002-12-17T22:28:10Z")
Use ext3… it is a bit more rubust than ext2. Oh and one other thing, when you’re performing the install you might want to do a ‘custom’ install rather than ‘workstation’ and add some other packages you might be interested in playing with. Also you can install both ‘kde’ and ‘gnome’ and be able to pick and choose between the two window managers from the initial login screen. This’ll let you decide which one you like better. GL, sweep ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/31 "2002-12-17T22:50:22Z")
Thanks sweep. In exchange for pumping up your post count :D, I have another question. "You can mount the 30 gig windows data partition under linux by creating a mount point in ‘/’ eg: #mkdir /WindowsData" Where do I do this? Thanks and pray for me. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/32 "2002-12-18T01:24:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by World Eater \* > \*\*Thanks sweep. In exchange for pumping up your post count :D, I have another question. > > "You can mount the 30 gig windows data partition under linux by creating a mount point in ‘/’ eg: > > #mkdir /WindowsData" > > Where do I do this? > > Thanks and pray for me. \*\* Actually I think I got the mount thing. 30 minutes till I go home and try to enter penguinland. Thanks everyone. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/33 "2002-12-18T06:06:52Z")
Well everything would be fine if I could resolve one little problem. Something is locking my D drive. Its blank according to fdisk, but I can’t remove that big ol dos partition. I can’t format because it says it’s being accessed, and it aborts. I’m sure thats the reason that my linux install had a “unhandled exception”. Any suggestions? I’m mulling a low level format, but of course I have no idea how to do that. \ At least I’m learning. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/34 "2002-12-18T07:07:56Z")
**World Eater,** I understand what you are going through. I installed Mandrake 9 over the weekend. (As a matter of fact, I’m posting this using Galeon, just because I switched to GNOME to see if I like it better.) Maybe we should start a “Linux Newbies” thread together to answer all our questions. -brianjedi ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/35 "2002-12-18T13:29:25Z")
Congrats, **World**! Now if only the rumours turn out to be true, you may eventually be able to strip off that Linux and fully liberate yourself with Mac OSX-PC version instead… ---
**Author:** ![sweepkick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@sweepkick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweepkick)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/36 "2002-12-18T15:59:16Z")
World, are you using the microsoft fdisk or the redhat fdisk? ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/37 "2002-12-18T17:41:06Z")
**Sweep** MS fdisk. It shows 1 big dos primary partition, but won’t delete it. Lol sounds good **Brian**. I’m kinda mad, because I feel like I’m giving in, but I lugged my tower into work today, and will be handing this over to the geeks 😉 here. Of course I’ll be watching every move, so hopefully I can be as helpful in the future as you all have been to me. I’m be keeping you posted on the progress. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/38 "2002-12-18T20:17:43Z")
So far so good. Do I want to install boot loader on MBR on win98 drive? Or put it first sector of my blank drive? ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/39 "2002-12-18T20:48:37Z")
While I’m being a pain in the ass, I add one more question. (the guys in the office are busy and I’m not in case you’re wondering). Should I have added a 100 meg “/boot” partition on my blank drive? Right now it has the only 9gig ext3 & 1 gig swap. I’m actually on the screen after that, where its asking to use grub or Lilo to install the boot record, and where to install it. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![sweepkick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@sweepkick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweepkick)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873/40 "2002-12-18T23:26:33Z")
Yep, install the boot loader on the MBR of your first hard disk. You’re fine without the “/boot” partition if your first partition on the big drive is your linux “/” partition. You generally only need the “/boot” partition if your Linux partition is above the 1024 cylinder limit (i.e. if you have a large partition in front of the “/” mounted partition), and/or you have an older BIOS that doesn’t support LBA mode. Sounds like you’re making good progress! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-liberate-me-from-windows/142873.md?page=3)