1024 Cylinder boundary

[Splurge]

I currently run Win XP Pro, and want to dual boot with RedHat. I just got a new computer like 2 weeks ago. I have a 120gb hard drive. What I'm wondering is do i have to install /boot in the first 8gb? Or is that just for older BIOS? I already have more than 8 gb of space occupied. Also is PartitionMagic worth it?
Thanks

[X_console]

New versions of lilo no longer have this restriction. Most if not all current Linux distributions come with versions of lilo (or other boot loaders) that have support for > 1024 cylinders.

[SpinyNorman]

As Xc_console said, lilo is now fixed- any version of lilo >= 2.2-3 doesn't suffer from the problem. Also, Grub is another popular linux bootloader, and it has never had the 1024 cylinder limitation.
The limit was also an issue with older (and I mean much older) BIOSes, but was overcome a loooong time ago.

If you've formatted your XP partition as NTFS, you'll probably have to use Partition Magic, as the freeware options (fip.exe (http://www.igd.fhg.de/~aschaefe/fips/) and GNU parted (http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/parted.html)) can't resize NTFS. Also, if you're using NTFS you should be aware that while Linux can read NTFS, support for writing to NTFS is still "experimental". If you're using FAT32, you're in luck- the free utilities mentioned above will work quite well. Linux can fully understand FAT32 partitions as well, so sharing data between the two filessytems is pretty transparent.

[Splurge]

ok i'm kinda new to this...yeah my computer came formatted as ntfs so i'm using partition magic....i want about 20gb for linux and the rest for windows...now what i don't know what to do is should i make a primary or extended or what? and do i put it at the end of my hard drive? i want windows to keep whatever's left over is that automatic? sorry if these questions are stupid just tryin to learn

[SpinyNorman]

What you do partition-wise in terms of the Linux install is kind of up to you. Here's a good NHF (http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/installation/partition/multi_partition.htmlhttp://) which describes the pros and cons of the single- vs. multi-partition schemes.

In general though, after shrinking your Win partition, the Linux partitions can be primary parts, or logical parts made within an extended part. DOS's fdisk only allows you to create one primary, but you can have up to four, and the Linux utilities will let you do that (Partition Magic might also, but I haven't used it in ages...).

The partitions should go toward the beginning of the disk, not the end, due to disk seek/access performance.

If you want XP to be able to use whatever space is left over after the Linux install, I'm pretty sure that the space will be unallocated free space, and you'll have to use PM to partition it and format it as NTFS. After that, though, you should have no porblem getting XP to see it.