🚀 go-pugleaf

Guy wrote:

> I have Win 95 and want to install LINUX.  My 6.4 gig HD is partitioned for
> windows as C:\ 2gig, D:\ 2 gig, E:\ 2 gig, and F:\ 30 megs.  Can I use the
> existing partitions somehow or do I need to repartition completely.  The
> fipps documentation said if there were already 4 partitions I couldn't us
> it.
>
> Thanks for the help.

  Guy,

It's difficult to give precise advice considering that we don't know either
your hdd geometry (cyls., heads, secs.) or the distribution you are
installing, but bear in mind that, if you plan to boot linux from the hdd
using lilo (Linux Loader),  and not boot from floppy then you must intall
your boot partition below the 1024th cylinder. Moreover, boot cannot traverse
the 1024th cylinder, or you'll encounter a system that may partially boot,
and then really freak!

What this means is that you almost certainly must repartition C:, as on an
6.4G hdd, 2G will likely exceed the 1024th cylinder. As a general rule of
thumb, the closer you can put the bootable linux partition to the first
cylinder, the better.  After that, you can shave space from D: -- F: to
create other linux partitions.

Also the type of partition is very important. If D: -- F: are logical
partitions located in an extended partition, then you won't have as great a
challenge ahead of you. On the other hand, if D: -- F: are secondary physical
partitions, then you have some work cut out for you. BTW, the first scenario
is more likely than the second but, regardless, you need to run DOS's fdisk
utility (found in C:\Windows\Command) to find out how the 6.4G has been cut
up.

Unfortunately, I can't give any advice for using fips, as I have never used
the utility. I would recomend procuring and using Quarterdeck's "Partition
Magic" utility for repartitioning your hdd. It non-destructively repartitions
the hdd, comes with OS2's Boot Manager utility (which gives you yet one more
option for how to boot a dual-boot system) and, as long as you pay attention
to what you're doing when repartitioning, is very safe.

Good Luck,
sunspark
Aka, Lin Osborne
ITI/Microage Installation & and Support