[newkidtopc]

Hello,
I want to install Mandrake/Red Hat linux on my PC.

I have 2 HDD
1: 20 GB (with Win98SE on C: & winxp pro on D
2: 80 GB blank partitioned into 10 parttions.

I want to install my linux into the 80 GB HDD.

I did try installing Mandrake linux on 80 GB HDD.It did install properly but I was not able to access parttions on 80 GB HDD from Windows.

While installing Mandrake at the stage of partioning what is the file system that should be kept for the parttion into which LInux will be installed?

I understand that this parttion will not be accessible from Windows.
Is this correct?

Also if I want the rest of the parttions to be accessible from Windows what should be their file system?
Last time I formateed them to FAT 32 but I was not able to access tham from Windows.

Sorry for such a long post.But I thought all this info would be needed for all those trying to help me.

Thanks in advance.

[tsunam]

did you try to repartition the entire 80 gig drive?
If you did then no doubt when you wrote it to the mbr it converted it all to linux's system.

basically the two filesystem types that you might want to run are jfs2 or 3, as you can guess three is a newer version of of the journaling file system.

As far as it not being accessable from windows, thats not entirely true, you can install a program called samba that will allow a certain ammount of communication between the systems.

What you basically will have to do is to use windows fdisk to make say 70 gig of the drive windows, leaving about 10 gig just free unused by any master boot record.

Then when you put in the installer it should ask you about partitioning, at which point you can make that 10 gig be linux. That should be the easiest way to partition and not have any issues. Mbr's are finikey

Btw good choice on a starting distribution. Hope you enjoy your experience with linux and come back to ask any question if you have other issues.

[newkidtopc]

Hello tsunam,
Thats just what I did
I guess I did not know what to do!!!
I will try what you say and get back to you as soon as possible.

BTW,how many parttions and/or size of the partion should I dedicate to Linux?

I have a 512 MB DDR Ram.I guess I will have to make a swap partition for linux.I read that size of the swap partition should be twice that of your phisical memory.

Just one more thing,Is formatting/repartitioning HDD again and again harmful?This is a new HDD and have already formatted/repartitioned it 3-4 times.

Thanks

[tsunam]

well typically you have 3 partitions for linux
a boot drive (this tends to be small 32 meg about)
a swap drive (this is about half a gig or so, wiht your ammount of ram that'll be plenty)

and then however much you want for the main linux drive. Just remember that when you go to compile things into the system that you need. Say you want to run kde, gnome, the like , you need at least about 600 or so meg for it, and then another 400 for x as well.

so a couple of gig will be good

[newkidtopc]

Ok tsunam,
From what I understand I basically need 3 partitions on theHDD space that I am reserving for Linux.Is that right?

[tsunam]

hai (yes)

just remember like windows, you first make the partition's then you format them.