Hi, guys,

I wanna install slackware 9.0 on my pc, and i only have 10G hard disk available( I already have WinXP installed ).
How should i partition my hard disk?
I am actually quite new to Linux. the reason why i am turning to it is that i want a totally customised systom for myself.
as i am new to Linux, could anyone tell me what kind of freedom i can gain from slackware? I really want to learn more about the operating system.

Thanks a lot.

You need to defrag windows moving all data on the disk to the beginning of the disk. Then you can use partition magic to split the partition into two partitions. There is no need to format the new partition, The Mandrake install will do it for you.

The space you want to devote to each OS is up to you. I would split the 10G in half.

Then just boot the Mandrake CD to continue the installation.

Read the Mandrake documentation.

do i have to use partition magic to split my disk?

Thanks

What is your current status of your hard drive? Has it been partition?

Assuming it has not been partition in half (c: & d. Yes, you need partition magic to split the disk without reinstalling your WinXP. I am not aware of other programs who do this. But there should be in existance.

Another alternative is to wipe out your hard drive and reinstall everything again. Not such a bad thing.

Plus points of using Slackware. IMHO: You will truly learn the fundamentals of Linux. As a testament of many, it is a distro which is closest to Unix Standard.

Flexibility. Very high. If you like a FULLY customized Linux. I advice you to install a minimum installation for Slackware. Minimum in the sense that, you are able to develop your Linux From Scratch (LFS). Check the documentation from www.tldp.org. Before you start your installation for Linux. Cause you need to partition it differently.

My 2 cents worth of advice. Wipe-out your hard drive. And do it from scratch.

Cheers.

Is it possible for you to reinstall windows?

If so that's your best option. That way you can partition it first.


there's also this

http://www.asp-linux.com/en/products/oss50/partitioning

there is a free open source solution

http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html


however you are using windows. I don't know of a free windows program.

You may be able to get it to work from a root boot disk like tomsrtbt but the ram space is limited, so you may not be able to install it.

Hi Whitefox,

Just so you know, up untill 2 days ago I was in the same boat you are, always wanted to try Slack but could never really muster up the courage to do it, so I had stuck with some of the simpler distros, like mandrake. If your new to linux (or newish) it's a really good idea to start with a distro like Slack because it kinda forces yah to learn what you should know in the first place if your going to use linux on an everyday basis.

So first, 10 gig (in my oppinion) can be cutting it a bit close (expecially if your going to be dual booting it with seXP) but this isn't to say it can't be done at all, I was running my mandrake 9 distro on 8 gigs before I installed slackware. If you have something like partition magic (I used partition magic 8) to set up your linux partition and swap space all the power to yah (if you don't know about swap I suggest going to http://www.slackware.com/book/ and read through some of the stuff that's been put up there.

Also, the install itself it fairly painless, don't let the text install scare yah. As for what you will get from slackware, well the only answer I have for that is, what do YOU want from it ? Read everything and anything you can, aks questions on here, get to know the OS and you'll see the benefits very quickly, most of all, have fun, it's a blast.

Anna.

Yes, I third the wipe the drive clean. Your drive is already small, and there is alot of junk on there probably that you don't need. You will have more room that way. Plus I dont trust resizing programs.

well, my drive is 40G, and the other 30G has already been occupied by something else.
I thought 10G should be enough, could anyone tell me why i will need that much space?

Thanks a lot.

Oh...10 gigs is fine. I think everybody thought you had 10 gigs total and was going to put XP AND slackware on same 10 gigs.