How to partition for XP/Linux dual boot

[os9er]

ok here's the thing i have already deleted my entire windows xp hardrive when trying to install Redhat 9. It's the second time this has happened.I've backed up the most important stuff right.

Ok I really get confused when the partitioning part of the installation continues, i click the automatic partitioning option and then it says it can't because their is no "/" partition.

Ok then I try the manual partitioning with disk druid. I select the new partition, and enter the next screen then I select from the drop down list "/" and choose ext3 right?

Then I hit the ok button then it says it can't create a new partition.

I believe i have 2 partitions already because im an hp pavillion machine an the second partition has the system restore on it.

Ok so HDA1 is the recovery partition and HDA2 is the windows partition right.

Ok Im desperately in need of help I have a maxtor hardrive with total size: 52.2 GB and free space 47.2 GB NTFS

Ok Please help me out tell me how i should setup the partition so XP and Redhat both can live happily under the same roof.

Really looking for a real dummies explanation here.
Ok now for those saying ok well he's pretty dumb why should he even want to run linux in the first place?

Well ok I have a little bit of knowledge with linux navigating directories, creating deleting directories and so on a so forth.

Ok here's another thing My cable modem!
The time i had redhat running by itself without xp it didn't want to recognize my cable modem the internet didnt want to work and also my sound card was not supported????
The manufacturer of my cable modem is Realtek:confused:

[leonpmu]

here we go, first of all, you need to have fre space to create your partitions.

2) Use fdisk, much better

3) you need to create a boot parition no more than say 50MB at mount point /boot as ext2/3 create a sawp parition of around 512MB, that way you will never have memory problems.. create a root parition and format it as an et2 /ext3 partition (I recommend ext3) make its mount point / . then install,

I hope that this clears things up.

Ignore the auto thing, often causes drive space problems, for later....

[hard candy]

When you get to Disk Druid,
1. You need to create a boot partition of say 100 MB, it can be after your WinXP partition. From the drop down list, choose "boot".
2.Then create a "/" (root) partition after the boot partition.
3. If you are going to use a bootloader from WinXP, you will not need a boot partition but if you are going to use grub or lilo (linux boot loaders)then you need a boot partition. I recommend the boot partition with grub, it will be the easiest.
4.Then create a swap partition, usually about double the size of your RAM (128 RAM=256MB swap). Choose "swap" from drop down list.
Here's what the disk would look like:
hda1=system restore
hda2=WinXP
hda3=boot
hda5(this will be an extended partition since you are limited to 4 logical partitions) = /
hda6= swap.
Make sure the boot partition is bootable.
Or it might be easier to use "fdisk" if you're familiar with that.
Whenever you have to enter the /boot directory once you get RH9 installed, you'll probably have to use "mount /dev/hda3 /boot" from the command line as root or su.
Good luck.:)

[os9er]

Ok so i entered disk druid and when ever i want to install a new partition i kept getting errors like cannot allocate partition.

Ok so I said what the heck so I installed linux on the system restore partition put a / dev and reformat it to a ext3.

Then I got an error that I had no swap partiton so once again i tried to make a swap partition with no luck "cannot allocate partition".

So i just went a head and installed it without a swap partition..

So when i get to the grub part i rename the dos and put windows xp then i put xp as the primary os right.

ok so there goes nothing

I restart the computer and grub loads then i choose xp

ok it works fine it loads xp

Then i restart and boot up into redhat also works out fine...
Now the only thing im really puzzled about is that i can't connect to the net using mozilla..
I was pretty used to just double clicking my ie icon and browsing away i didn't have to enter my ip or anything..

Ok now will my cable modem be supported in redhat it's a Toshiba model pcx11u
how do i go about configuring internet access to work in redhat?
ohh and my sound card doesn't seem to be supported either ..
I don't want to sound negative at all i guess you have to learn how to do things differently in redhat

Thanks for the help and sure hope to get a reply
Ohh i believe my sound card is an avance Ac97 not really -sure

[hard candy]

The network device configuration menu is what you need. I think it's in the system menu.

[os9er]

Ok so posted another post that i needed help but i guess it got deleted.

Ok so I had already installed linux and xp on the same computer and everyting was going fine I really got frustrated when i couldn't get on the net with linux so i booted into xp and deleted the linux partition and i figured xp would load right.

But all i get is the grub command line shows up i type help but i can't really figure out the commands is there a command to load xp ? or is there a command to stop grub from loading all together.

So I orginally had 2 partition the system restore and the xp partition i tried partitioning with a copy of partition magic but i couldn't get the thing to work right.
So I just entered disk druid from the redhat installation guide and put linux on the system restore partition and formated as ext3 so it all went fine but i didn't install the swap partition.

Ok so it's like this if i remember right

hda1 = Linux
hda2 = windows xp
and i think i remember that grub was going to be in the hda0

all i get on boot is the grub command line come up and i can't get xp back or anything i have tried using the restore cd's that came with my comp but the grub command line still shows up even after i boot from cd-rom.

I really appreciate the help that you guys have given me and i need help solving this issue because my dad is pis#$% off I really need help.

[leonpmu]

2 things

1) I am sad that you scrapped Linux, I am guessing that you are using a winmodem 1b) I am also extremely sad for you that you are using Windows XP.... Ill say no more....

For your problem, use a windows 98 cd, boot from it and from the command line type fdisk /mbr, this will restore your master boot record to its previous config.

Hope it helps

L