Partitioning Dell Inspiron 6000 for dual-boot

**rangalo** · 04-10-2006, 12:59 PM

Hallo all,

I have got new dell Inspiron 6000 with 80GB scsi hdd.

the original partitions as detected by QTParted (on Knoppix 4.0.2 live cd) are as following:

sda1 98MB fat32 -- dell diagnostics
sda2 75GB ntfs -- windows xp pro.
sda3 4GB fat32 -- dell recovery partition.

I burned xp cd from dell recovery utiliy and also backed up the last recovery partition to a dvd. So I deleted that partition and also resized the ntfs partition (without any probs !) to make space for installing dual boot system. my new paritions are as following:

sda1 98MB fat32 -- dell diagnostics
sda2 60gb ntfs -- windows xp (resized)
sda3 (approx)18gb ext3 -- ext3 linux
sda4 1gb swap -- linux swap.

Now, I know that we can have only 4 primary partitions and for linux(debian etch) I need some more partitions atleast separate partitions for /home and / , so i dont lose my data while reinstalling.

I read somewhere that I can installl linux also on extended partition (logical partitions to be correct). Is it true ?

I have never tried it, so can any body tell me how to repartition my drive for linux installation no extended partition ?

thanks
Hardik

ps: i have tried to delete the first (sda1) partition, but after deleting I can neither move that partition at the end, nor I can resize ntfs to include it.??!!

**Harry Kuhman** · 04-10-2006, 06:43 PM

Originally Posted by rangalo

I read somewhere that I can installl linux also on extended partition (logical partitions to be correct). Is it true ?

Yes, Linux can install to and boot from a Logical drive on an extended partition (the term logical partition is noy usually used, although people would know what you intended if you did say it that way).

Originally Posted by rangalo

I have never tried it, so can any body tell me how to repartition my drive for linux installation no extended partition ?

Is this a typo? Did you write no when you intended on? Please explain which you want, a Linux install with no extended partition, or a Linux install in a Logical Drive on an extended partition. I'm guessing that you want to keep XP and have Linux on an Extended partition.

**Harry Kuhman** · 04-10-2006, 06:58 PM

Assuming you want Linux on an extended partition, the simple answer is to delete the ext3 partition and create an extended partition in its space. Then create the logical drives that you want as ext3 partitions in the extended partition, they will become sda5 and sda6 (and so on if you further split the space). There is no need to do this, it does allow experienced Linux users to better control the space, but novice users often find it more straightforward to put everything in one partition since they have less of a sense of how much space to allocate to each partition for their needs.