Need Help!

[hello23518]

Hi,
I have WinXp and RedHat 9 dual boot system. How can i format linux partition and install mandrake 9.1? I want to try mandrake. I have partition magic 8 software. Can I use that to delet linux partition? Please help me. Thanks.

[mossopinc]

the mandrake cd will give ya the chance to format M8

[krohnjw]

mossopinc is right, Mandrake 9.1 will allow you to partition, along with resizing partitions during the install.

[TheChronoRogue]

Can't you also use FDisk from the Windows Partition to work on the Linux one?

[krohnjw]

you cant create ext3 partitions or resize with fdisk...but you can delete and create windows partitions and then leave free space for the linux installer to take.

[originel]

i'd also recommend using the partitioner in drake. but partition magic will also delete them just fine. either way will work just fine.

[Ruler2112]

I would use the partitioning program that comes with either RedHat or Mandrake. The command like fdisk under Linux is one of the most powerful disk partitioning programs I've seen.

Related to the above, I was thinking of doing something similar on my new PC, but don't want to scrap RedHat - just to try out Mandrake. Is there any way of doing the above and preserving the RH partition; have Windoze, RH, and Mandrake as menu choices?

[originel]

if you've got enough un-partitioned space then sure. i think you can share your swap space, so that's not needed, just your root partition. if you don't have any extra space then you can try and get a copy of partition magic and resize one of your partitions. then in your lilo.conf file you'll just add another entry for drake

[nukes]

Normally, when I have more than 1 distro installed, I share the /boot, /home and swap between them. But I don't let the new distro kill off anything in the two mounted ones.
Swap space is just like a raw partition, and is reset every time the system starts, so there is no problem sharing it. /boot is where your kernels and gruib config files go, so that's fine, so long as you make sure it won't kill your existing setup. /home will share your desktop settings between the two and also all your documents, you may need to watch out on that one as depending on how you have things set up, they may not work right on both distros.
Don't use the windows fdisk to delete the linux partition, it doesn't always work right, PM will be fine, as will the mandrake/redhat installer.