Partition question

Hey,

my friend handled me a copy of Ubuntu linux, which I plan to install now. I am currently on windows xp, and I plan to re-do my partitions now. I have 2 HD's, 120gb & 180gb, here's what's on them:

120gb:
C: 10gb, old drive where I had win2k before Xp. Oddly my Nvidia drivers and updates are stored there (probably because they have win2k & Xp drivers together).
D: 50gb, I have Xp installed here. Also a big program files folder here.
E: 60gb, photo storage drive.

180gb:
K: 180gb, Dvd work space.

I plan to re-do partitions like this:
120gb: Merge everything together, and reserve 5gb for Xp.
180gb: Reserve 5gb for Ubuntu.

What should I take into consideration? Is it possible to reserve 5gb for Xp, or should I just merge everything there together?. I've heard that Partition Magic is a good tool for this. What actually happens if I merge D and E together as D? All files and programs work the same, except that the path starts with D?

Thanks in advance!

 

(Partition magic is a perfect tool for this in my opinion, but not sure if you really need to use it)

If you merge all your drives together, ie c,d & e, I think it will probably screw up your xp install, all the file associations will be up the spout. How about this?

Why not format your c drive and use this for your linux. (after copying any drivers you need into any of your other drives, pref d
When you say updates do you mean XP updates?
You can then leave the rest of the drives as they are.

Why do you need to reserve another 5gb for XP? You want to reinstall XP?

 

Hey,

I thought I'd make small storages for Xp and Ubuntu, just to sort of keep them separated. I think I had a wrong idea in the beginning: I thought you can't install different OS's on same HD (they'd be unstable atleast). But apparently you can if you install them on different partitions?

About drivers: I think my windows xp updates go to D:, but whenever I've updated my graphics card drivers, they go to C: for some odd reason.

So a convenient way (borrowing Flushed's idea) to do this is:
120gb:
C: for linux
D & E: merge together or keep untouched?

180gb: keep as it is. ?

Thanks for your help

 

If you're using more than one OS on the system (eg, Linux and Win XP) you would put them in separate partitions. (To the BIOS, there is no difference between a physical hard drive and a partition -- the BIOS treats a partition as if it were a separate drive.)

Best to use a boot manager (is Linux still using LILO?) that lets you select which OS you want to boot into when you start the system. You'll find that when you've booted into one OS, the partition that contains the other OS is hidden. It will not be accessible until you re-start and select that other OS on start-up.

So don't put your data files on the same partition as either OS unless you will want those data files accessible only to the OS on the partition where they are stored. And make sure that the filesystem you format the data partition with can be read by both OS's. I'm not sure that Linux can deal with NTFS. You might need to put a FAT32 format on the data partition.

In short -- you'll want a minimum of three partitions: one for Win XP, one for Linux, and a third partition for your data. Only two of those partitions will be visible at any one time. If you've done it this way, the partition containing your OS will be C: (regardless of which OS you've booted into) and your data will be on D:.

 

Just to clarify, assuming that I install Linux on C:, and keep everything else as it was before:

If I use Linux as OS, all linux program files etc. will be installed on C:, and I can't see D:, but I can see E: and K: ?
If I use Xp as OS, I can see everything else besides C: ?

 

Probably yes, but it depends.

If the OS you've booted into doesn't recognise the filesystem on a given partition, it will not give that partition a drive designation, and it will not be visible to that OS. E: and K: may become D: and J:.

Also -- not a good idea to think of the invisible partition as D: -- or anything else. It won't be assigned a drive letter, so your D: drive will be the next visible partition. This is one reason why most OSes let you name a partition with something descriptive. You can then recognise it regardless of what drive designation it gets.

Also keep in mind that the boot manager will hide the boot partition(s) you're not using even if it/they would be visible to the OS you've booted into. This helps to make sure that one OS doesn't step on the other -- with potentially disastrous results.

It depends. See above.

Drive letters are assigned only to partitions that can be recognised by the OS you've booted into. C: will be assigned to the first recognised primary partition on the first physical disk. D: will be assigned to the first recognised primary partition on the next physical disk. And so on until the first primary partition on each disk has been assigned a drive letter.

The OS will then go back to the first physical disk, and assign drive letters to the remaining recognised partitions on that disk. Then the OS will do the same for the next physical disk, and so on until all recognised partitions have been assigned a drive letter or the OS has run out of available drive designations. If there are drive designations remaining, they will then be assigned to optical drives (CD-ROMs, etc.) and other removable media.

Note that this means that drive letters assigned to a particular partition or removable drive can change, depending on how many partitions have been recognised by the OS you're using.

 

Hello, i have a little problem with my exturnal harddrive i was fixing my computer and accidently deleted partion for both hard drives the internal and exturnal... there is alot of information that i need on that exturnal is there any way i can fix that partiion so it can work good again with out recovering every single folder i have there?

 

Hi Gapon,
Your problem is different than the one in this thread, so you will probably get more help by posting a new thread in the hardware section. The New Thread starter button is just at the top of the Hardware forum on the left side.
abri