1) Make the second partition primary, extended partitions are only needed if you have more than 4 on the disk
2) Add a third partition, around 2X your RAM, for swap space (and format it swap)
3) Don't worry so much about cylinder boundaries, the heads/cylinders/tracks are all fake anyway (they're there for compatibility with old software).

Mark Phillips wrote:
> Alan,
> 
> Thanks - that is just what I need!
> 
> Now, one more question - am I doing this correctly?
> 
> 1. Resized my first partition to split the drive
> 2. Created an Extended Partition to include all the newly freed up space
> 3. Created a Logical partition in the new Extended Partition that includes all 
> the space of the Extended Partition. Formatted this Logical Partition as 
> ext3. I can create the swap space within the Debian setup program.
> 
> Or, do I make the second partition a Primary Partition and format it as ext3?
> 
> The Windows XP stuff (fat32) is at the front of the drive and is still labeled 
> as boot.
> 
> Before I hit "apply", I wanted to get some feedback before I hose everything!
> 
> Also, Partition Magic always changed partition sizes to remain on cylinder 
> boundaries. It is not apparent if GParted is doing that. Isn't that 
> important?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Mark
> 
> P.S. I never would have made it through offset=nnn!
> 
> 
> On Tuesday 19 September 2006 10:45 am, Alan Pratt wrote:
>> Before you go that direction (which is a problem waiting to happen),
>> try a free program called 'GParted' - you can find it with a quick
>> google search.
>>
>> - alan
>>
>> On 9/19/06, Mark Phillips <mark@phillipsmarketing.biz> wrote:
>>> I have a new laptop that currently has Windows XP SP2. I want to create a 
> new
>>> partition on the drive for Debian.
>>>
>>> My system: 30GB hard drive. Primary partition is c: with Windows XP, about 
> 28
>>> GB in size (the whole drive). I want to create a 15GB partition for 
> Debian.
>>> I have used Partition Magic 7.1 in the past to do this, but it seems that 
> XP
>>> won't let it re-partition the disk. I keep getting an error 27 - can't 
> lock
>>> drive at the first step. I googled around for a work around and did not 
> find
>>> a good solution.
>>>
>>> Symantek now owns PartitionMagic, has a new version, and doesn't support 
> the
>>> older version. After 30 minutes on the phone and referrals to 4 phone
>>> numbers, I finally ended up at a number that wanted to charge my credit 
> card
>>> $10 in order to connect me to someone to ask them "What is the price of 
> the
>>> upgrade from Partition Magic 7.1 to 8.0?"!
>>>
>>> So, it seems that XP comes with DiskPart, a command line utility to 
> partition
>>> disks. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with it and could 
> provide
>>> some guidance on how to use it. I start to get worried when it asks for
>>> offset values.
>>>
>>> Alternatively, what other options do you suggest for partitioning my 
> drive?
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>> --
>>> Mark Phillips
>>> Phillips Marketing, Inc
>>> mark@phillipsmarketing.biz
>>> 602 524-0376
>>> 480 945-9197 fax
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