Need Help partitioning a disk for dual boot

[Mark Phillips]

Great - thanks!

Now for the age old question....how mcuh swap? I have 512 MB or RAM. Is 512 MB 
sufficient or too much? What is the magic number?

Thanks again!

Mark

On Tuesday 19 September 2006 01:22 pm, Joseph Sinclair wrote:
> 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 at 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 at phillipsmarketing.biz
> >>> 602 524-0376
> >>> 480 945-9197 fax
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-- 
Mark Phillips
Phillips Marketing, Inc
mark at phillipsmarketing.biz
602 524-0376
480 945-9197 fax