Creating a partition...

[BNLS]

Is it possible t create a partition using windows and not linux.....this isnt for me but my freind is clueless...if it can be done can you explain how in a post please?

[Sargera]

Restart your computer and boot via your Windows installation disc and use the Windows partition manager.  You can also use programs such as Partition Magic.  

[BNLS]

ty very much

[BNLS]

when i create a partition that im going to run linux on what file system type do i use fat, fat32, ntfs, linux ext2, linuxext2 or linux sway?

[Newby]

when i create a partition that im going to run linux on what file system type do i use fat, fat32, ntfs, linux ext2, linuxext2 or linux sway?

Didn't you say it was for your friend?

[Archonist]

when i create a partition that im going to run linux on what file system type do i use fat, fat32, ntfs, linux ext2, linuxext2 or linux sway?

Didn't you say it was for your friend?

Well THATS helpfull, jokes jokes  

Sway = Swap??

You'd make an linux ext, 2 or 3 would work. (I, well iago, prefer ext3) You'll also need to make a swap, which should (*i belive*) be twice as large as your amount of ram. Just wondering, what distro are you using?

[Balistik]

Use NTFS, if I'm not mistaken, its the newest / fastest windows file system type.

[Sargera]

Use NTFS, if I'm not mistaken, its the newest / fastest windows file system type.

He wanted to know which one to use for Linux.  NTFS is incompatable with Linux, he would need to use FAT32 to transfer files across his Windows/Linux partition.

[muert0]

NTFS isn't exactly incompatible it's just read only.

[Kp]

NTFS isn't exactly incompatible it's just read only.

IIRC, there're drivers for Linux that can write to NTFS.  OTOH, last I checked (which was quite a while ago), they had a tendency to horribly corrupt the entire partition.  But they do permit writing.

[Maddox]

NTFS isn't exactly incompatible it's just read only.

IIRC, there're drivers for Linux that can write to NTFS.  OTOH, last I checked (which was quite a while ago), they had a tendency to horribly corrupt the entire partition.  But they do permit writing.

I know Gentoo has built-in support for the NTFS file system. It reads fine, however, IIRC it can only write to a file if it doesn't change the size. You cannot delete or make files or folders.

If you want to be able to read/write from both Linux and Windows then I suggest making a fat32 partition to store data. If you want to make a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB then you need to use fdisk or some other software like Partition Magic.

These are how my partitions are set up:

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1           5       40131   83  Linux
/dev/hda2               6          68      506047+  82  Linux swap
/dev/hda3              69        2434    19004895   83  Linux  // ext3

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1   *           1        2550    20482843+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdb2            2551        9729    57665317+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

[iago]

For Linux, you want ext3.  If you install Linux on fat32 it'll work, but it's incredibly dumb.  

You can use ReiserFS, which is apparently good if you have lots of small files, but my friend (Xar) said it can corrupt easily.

Ext2 and Ext3 are the best.  Ext3 is newer, and, therefore, better.

[Thing]

You can use ReiserFS, which is apparently good if you have lots of small files, but my friend (Xar) said it can corrupt easily.

I use ReiserFS almost exclusively and have not experienced any notable corruption.

Ext2 and Ext3 are the best.  Ext3 is newer, and, therefore, better.

Actually, ext3 is better because it is a "journaled filesystem" and ext2 is not.

More info on ReiserFS can be found here.

[Kp]

After playing with ReiserFS for a while, I very much regret choosing it over ext3.  When I used ext2, I was able to do nice low level backups easily and I'm pretty sure the same could be done with ext3.  ReiserFS, unfortunately, is incompatible with that backup style (but, for a mere $50,000 the company which made Reiser is willing to develop a compatible system, iirc), which leaves me stuck tarring the areas I want to save and writing the tarballs to tape.