Partitioning Trouble

[adamherb]

I recently partitioned my hdb, and there are some issues.
Hda is my Windows partition and is ok, but hdb has a large NTFS partition that is used for backup (hdb1)
HDb2 is swap
HDb3 is where I want to put Linux.
I had that configuration, and wanted to replace the installation on b3 with another, so in Mandriva's Drakx, I deleted it, and made A new partition. Now my partition table is like this.
Device Start End Blocks ? Type
b1 1 8424 67665748? 7 NTFS
b2 8425 8555 1052257 82 Linux swap
b3 8556 9586 8281507 5 Extended
b5 8556 9586 8281476 83 Linux
I cant remember the number of blocks for b1 exactly, and I hope it isn't a problem.
b3 and b5 are on top of each other. I didn't even want to have a b5, so please tell me a way to fix this with Knoppix.

[Harry Kuhman]

b3 and b5 are on top of each other. I didn't even want to have a b5, so please tell me a way to fix this with Knoppix.

Of course b5 is on top of b3. B3 is an extended partition, b5 is a logical partition inside the extended partition. This will work. If you don't want to do it that way and want your Linux partition in a real partition rather than an extended logical partition you will need to remove the partition you call b5, then remove b3, then create a physical Linix partition in the partition table.

Sorry, I can't walk you through the exact steps using Knoppix, I don't use it to partition drives. I like the free partitioning tool Ranish Partition Manager which runs under windows (or runs "stand alone" under XOSL). But if you really want to do it with the Knoppix partitioning tools you certainly should be able to do so.

[UnderScore]

Grey = the disk
Green = primary partitions
Pink = logical partitions inside an extended
White= usable free space or unusable space
My drawing could certainly be better but it is a good description of your situation. In the end your partition layout is fine and there is nothing wrong with it. The Drakex program first created a new extended partition. A extended partition. is a special partition used to get around the limit of 4 primary partitions. So a extended partition holds other partitions.

Guides on partitioning can be found on google. I found this one. http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/...titions-c.html

[adamherb]

But then when I try to install Mandrake it tells me that it can't read the aprtition table. I dont know how to fix it.
This is the error
"I cant read the partition table of device hdb, it is too corrupted for me . I can try to go on erasing over bad partitions (all data will be lost) The other solution is to not allow DrakeX to modify the partition table. (The error is /proc/partition doesnt agree with drakex 3 !=0:
)"
It really has the smiley.
The only thing that I wanted to do was delete a partition and make another in its place.