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I am interested in partitioning a couple 80gb hdds and I need some
guidance. This will be a first for me. I have Partion Magic but trying
to use it brought up more questions that I could not answer. I tried
qtparted that is with Linspire 5.0.347 live cd but I need some kind of
step procedure explanation. There are no helps using the live cd. I
was doing something wrong so qtparted did not work for me, not knowing
the proper steps to accomplish partitioning. This will be on a Linux
only box, No widows or gates.
I have Linspire 5.0.347, Ubuntu 5.10, Kubuntu 5.10, Suse 10.0, and a
couple others to try.

I am a visual learner, that is screen
shots with text type of explanation. Quite a few sites I found get
very technical as I have noticed that most of Linux leans in the
direction of tech types and not average 98 or xp users. Can someone
refer me to a pdf type file? I was thinking of the Dummies series
books and there is one for Linux but I am not crazy about the author's
style of writing. I do not care to be a slave to forums so if I can
find the type of information I need, I can solve this issue eventually
by myself.

Thank you.

Richard

gagnonrchrd@netscape.net writes:

>I am interested in partitioning a couple 80gb hdds and I need some
>guidance. This will be a first for me. I have Partion Magic but trying

For what? Partition Magic is a tool. You have to know what you want first.
What do you want? What are you partitioning for? Is this a new disk or a
disk with information you want to save?

>to use it brought up more questions that I could not answer. I tried

Like what kinds of questions? You will probably need the answer to those
questions no matter which tool you use.

>qtparted that is with Linspire 5.0.347 live cd but I need some kind of
>step procedure explanation. There are no helps using the live cd. I
>was doing something wrong so qtparted did not work for me, not knowing
>the proper steps to accomplish partitioning. This will be on a Linux
>only box, No widows or gates.

Most distributions already have a partitioning tool as part of the
installation. If this is a new disk, just use that. And if in doubt use the
default.

Myself I like 1 1GB partition for /, one for /usr, and the rest for whatever,
to include /usr/local/ and /home

But opinions vary. I like to have / and /usr as separate partions ( could
be all one) so I can reinstall (ratehr than upgrade) easily. (everything
local I put in the /usr/local or /home and system is in / or /usr, and I
can wipe those.
You could have just one 5 or 6 GB / partition which includes /usr)



>I have Linspire 5.0.347, Ubuntu 5.10, Kubuntu 5.10, Suse 10.0, and a
>couple others to try.

You want to try them all at once? Serially? What?


>I am a visual learner, that is screen
>shots with text type of explanation. Quite a few sites I found get
>very technical as I have noticed that most of Linux leans in the
>direction of tech types and not average 98 or xp users. Can someone
>refer me to a pdf type file? I was thinking of the Dummies series
>books and there is one for Linux but I am not crazy about the author's
>style of writing. I do not care to be a slave to forums so if I can
>find the type of information I need, I can solve this issue eventually
>by myself.

>Thank you.

>Richard

Never mind. I will figure it out myself. I see you are a techie by your
response and have no use for regular users.
Sorry I took up your time.

Richard






Unruh wrote:
> gagnonrchrd@netscape.net writes:
>
> >I am interested in partitioning a couple 80gb hdds and I need some
> >guidance. This will be a first for me. I have Partion Magic but trying
>
> For what? Partition Magic is a tool. You have to know what you want first.
> What do you want? What are you partitioning for? Is this a new disk or a
> disk with information you want to save?
>
> >to use it brought up more questions that I could not answer. I tried
>
> Like what kinds of questions? You will probably need the answer to those
> questions no matter which tool you use.
>
> >qtparted that is with Linspire 5.0.347 live cd but I need some kind of
> >step procedure explanation. There are no helps using the live cd. I
> >was doing something wrong so qtparted did not work for me, not knowing
> >the proper steps to accomplish partitioning. This will be on a Linux
> >only box, No widows or gates.
>
> Most distributions already have a partitioning tool as part of the
> installation. If this is a new disk, just use that. And if in doubt use the
> default.
>
> Myself I like 1 1GB partition for /, one for /usr, and the rest for whatever,
> to include /usr/local/ and /home
>
> But opinions vary. I like to have / and /usr as separate partions ( could
> be all one) so I can reinstall (ratehr than upgrade) easily. (everything
> local I put in the /usr/local or /home and system is in / or /usr, and I
> can wipe those.
> You could have just one 5 or 6 GB / partition which includes /usr)
>
>
>
> >I have Linspire 5.0.347, Ubuntu 5.10, Kubuntu 5.10, Suse 10.0, and a
> >couple others to try.
>
> You want to try them all at once? Serially? What?
>
>
> >I am a visual learner, that is screen
> >shots with text type of explanation. Quite a few sites I found get
> >very technical as I have noticed that most of Linux leans in the
> >direction of tech types and not average 98 or xp users. Can someone
> >refer me to a pdf type file? I was thinking of the Dummies series
> >books and there is one for Linux but I am not crazy about the author's
> >style of writing. I do not care to be a slave to forums so if I can
> >find the type of information I need, I can solve this issue eventually
> >by myself.
>
> >Thank you.
>
> >Richard

gagnonrchrd@netscape.net wrote:
> I am interested in partitioning a couple 80gb hdds and I need some
> guidance. This will be a first for me. I have Partion Magic but trying
> to use it brought up more questions that I could not answer. I tried
> qtparted that is with Linspire 5.0.347 live cd but I need some kind of
> step procedure explanation. There are no helps using the live cd. I
> was doing something wrong so qtparted did not work for me, not knowing
> the proper steps to accomplish partitioning. This will be on a Linux
> only box, No widows or gates.
> I have Linspire 5.0.347, Ubuntu 5.10, Kubuntu 5.10, Suse 10.0, and a
> couple others to try.
>
> I am a visual learner, that is screen
> shots with text type of explanation. Quite a few sites I found get
> very technical as I have noticed that most of Linux leans in the
> direction of tech types and not average 98 or xp users. Can someone
> refer me to a pdf type file? I was thinking of the Dummies series
> books and there is one for Linux but I am not crazy about the author's
> style of writing. I do not care to be a slave to forums so if I can
> find the type of information I need, I can solve this issue eventually
> by myself.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Richard
>

You might try this site:
http://insyte.atspace.com/index.html
Its about Slackware but as Slackware is linux maybe you could use it as help
site to do your partitioning and install. I tried all those GUI style
partitioners and got lost so I just use fdisk or cfdisk. These are in whatever
Linux you boot. You need to open a terminal to use them. Cfdisk opens up hda but
if you want to partition a different hard drive than the first master you would do:
fdisk /dev/hdb or possibly cfdisk /dev/hdb. hdb being the slave of the first ide
slot.

--
Leo (Bing) Whiteway in Kelowna, BC, Canada: Ham calls: VE7UW and VE7OKV
A computer without Microsoft is like a chocolate cake without mustard.
< running Linux >

gagnonrchrd@netscape.net wrote:
: I am interested in partitioning a couple 80gb hdds and I need some
: guidance


I do not know what you mean by "couple of 80gb" hard drives. So I will
run through a scenario of having *two* 80Gb hard drives in one computer
and wanting to install system in one, keep data + backups on another. And
you want to make it mainly a single-user computer and not a server. Call one
"hda"(hard-disk A) the other "hdb".

I would use Ubuntu as a beginner. Only disadvantage is that stuff will
not be installed by default but they have excellent repositories for you
to auto-magically install stuff. Look for "Ubuntu Guide", it is a step by
step tool to follow.

So, wait till you get to the partitioning tool during installation. And
there, make partitions on *hda* :
1 Gb for /boot (stuff for booting the computer)
1 gb for /tmp (temporary files, so you keep it from expanding too much)
1 Gb for /var (for log files, again to keep it form expanding too much)
5Gb for /usr (for programs etc, make it larger if you need)
5gb for / (for other system realted stuff. random number I put there)
reminder as /home (for your user's files)

on hdb. make either an 80Gb partition and mount point as /home/data or
40Gb /home/data, 40Gb /home/backup. You can decide on the permissions
for these later on.

If you *only* want to access a partition tool and keep system install etc
separately, qtparted is the right tool. I like SystemRescueCD for that
purpose from this web-site: http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

Alternatively, just pick up the defaults.
hth,

Turgut

gagnonrchrd@netscape.net wrote:
> I am interested in partitioning a couple 80gb hdds and I need some
> guidance. This will be a first for me. I have Partion Magic but trying
> to use it brought up more questions that I could not answer. I tried
> qtparted that is with Linspire 5.0.347 live cd but I need some kind of
> step procedure explanation. There are no helps using the live cd. I
> was doing something wrong so qtparted did not work for me, not knowing
> the proper steps to accomplish partitioning. This will be on a Linux
> only box, No widows or gates.
> I have Linspire 5.0.347, Ubuntu 5.10, Kubuntu 5.10, Suse 10.0, and a
> couple others to try.
>
> I am a visual learner, that is screen
> shots with text type of explanation. Quite a few sites I found get
> very technical as I have noticed that most of Linux leans in the
> direction of tech types and not average 98 or xp users. Can someone
> refer me to a pdf type file? I was thinking of the Dummies series
> books and there is one for Linux but I am not crazy about the author's
> style of writing. I do not care to be a slave to forums so if I can
> find the type of information I need, I can solve this issue eventually
> by myself.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Richard

gagnonrchrd@netscape.net wrote:
> Never mind. I will figure it out myself. I see you are a techie by your
> response and have no use for regular users.
> Sorry I took up your time.
>
> Richard
>

You probably booted to a LiveCD and didn't give yourself rw
(read/write) permission to write to disk....which most times is not an
easy task, since many utilize loopback file systems (cloop / UnionFS).
This site can help answer many questions, even though resizing ntfs is
not part of your agenda, -- the links, as well as that page itself
provides invaluable help and details about using partitioning tools and
creating file systems
http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html

Using most any Distro's built-in Installer will allow you to setup the
disk (partition and format/create FS - using ' ext3 ' file system is
just fine for you) -- note; Knoppix for example is not meant for HDD
install, some other LiveCDs aren't either.

Here's a typical walkthrough using Debian on a RAID installation - but
many of the menu options are visible in the screenshots, plus
explanations (thanks to Paul - hope he doesn't mind the plug ;-))
http://nepotismia.com/debian/raidinstall/

On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 10:25:28 -0800, gagnonrchrd wrote:

> I am interested in partitioning a couple 80gb hdds and I need some
> guidance. This will be a first for me. I have Partion Magic but trying
> to use it brought up more questions that I could not answer. I tried
> qtparted that is with Linspire 5.0.347 live cd but I need some kind of
> step procedure explanation. There are no helps using the live cd. I
> was doing something wrong so qtparted did not work for me, not knowing
> the proper steps to accomplish partitioning. This will be on a Linux
> only box, No widows or gates.
> I have Linspire 5.0.347, Ubuntu 5.10, Kubuntu 5.10, Suse 10.0, and a
> couple others to try.
>
> I am a visual learner, that is screen
> shots with text type of explanation. Quite a few sites I found get
> very technical as I have noticed that most of Linux leans in the
> direction of tech types and not average 98 or xp users. Can someone
> refer me to a pdf type file? I was thinking of the Dummies series
> books and there is one for Linux but I am not crazy about the author's
> style of writing. I do not care to be a slave to forums so if I can
> find the type of information I need, I can solve this issue eventually
> by myself.

Books? LINUX FOR DUMMIES for the basics, then the best book and reference
source on Linux ever, IMHO, RUNNING LINUX, 4th Edition (O'Reilly, pub.).

As far as partitioning, install SUSE -- forget the others for now -- and
when the installer gets to the partitioning section choose the hard drive
you want to install it on and let the installer do an "Auto" partitioning.
Done!

Stef

Hello All

Here are some links I found concerning partitioning.

http://www.pcmech.com/show/os/903/
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplan...orials/4269/1/
http://www.madirish.net/tech.php?section=5&article=93
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/203/1

The links are not the last word but a start for me so I do not become a
slave to the forums. I know I can build on these and learn more about
partitioning at my pace.

Here is what I am using for a search engine now.

http://www.scroogle.org/


Richard

gagnonrchrd@netscape.net wrote:

> I am interested in partitioning a couple 80gb hdds and I need some
> guidance. This will be a first for me. I have Partion Magic but trying
> to use it brought up more questions that I could not answer. I tried
> qtparted that is with Linspire 5.0.347 live cd but I need some kind of
> step procedure explanation. There are no helps using the live cd. I
> was doing something wrong so qtparted did not work for me, not knowing
> the proper steps to accomplish partitioning. This will be on a Linux
> only box, No widows or gates.

> I have Linspire 5.0.347, Ubuntu 5.10, Kubuntu 5.10, Suse 10.0, and a
> couple others to try.

> I am a visual learner, that is screen
> shots with text type of explanation. Quite a few sites I found get
> very technical as I have noticed that most of Linux leans in the
> direction of tech types and not average 98 or xp users.

That is a failing with linux for newbies but newbies should not be partitioning
hard disks. I'll assume you have a good reason for doing this but if you do not,
don't do it. It is annoying to use them in practice. The good news about
learning to read linux is after you have read enough you find it not only starts
making sense but often you don't even have to read anything. It is worth the
effort.

> Can someone
> refer me to a pdf type file? I was thinking of the Dummies series
> books and there is one for Linux but I am not crazy about the author's
> style of writing. I do not care to be a slave to forums so if I can
> find the type of information I need, I can solve this issue eventually
> by myself.

The solution is read the instructions very carefully. I have been at this for a
long and have done it so rarely I have to read carefully before doing it. If
they are new disks, you can't hurt anything just fooling around. After you get
it wrong a few times doing it right becomes obvious.

If you are saving a Windows installation, use whatever it is called in Windows
to make the partition smaller and let the linux installation find the unused
part of the disk. If you have used one of those programs that separates programs
and data you have to uninstall that first else the disk always looks full to
partitioning software.

--
Coathanger abortion is a grossly underated and underutilized technology.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 3581
nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml
Mission Accomplished http://www.giwersworld.org/opinion/mission.phtml a12

gagnonrchrd@netscape.net wrote:
> I am interested in partitioning a couple 80gb hdds and I need some
> guidance. This will be a first for me.

Welcome to the Linux community, Richard!

> I have Partion Magic but trying to use it brought up more questions
> that I could not answer. I tried qtparted that is with Linspire
> 5.0.347 live cd but I need some kind of step procedure explanation.
> There are no helps using the live cd.

Yes, I do sympathise. Fooling around with data-bearing partitions is
inherently a little nerve-wracking -- as it should be, though, since you
can do real damage, especially given that most people trying to use
these "non-destructive partition resizers" don't secure tested, full
backups first. (In fact, many are specifically trying to avoid that
step. This is akin to doing a trapeze act without a safety net.)

Anyhow, QtParted is (as you probably saw) a nice graphical front-end to
Linux's native non-destructive partition resizing utilities. There are
a number of others. In fact, many popular Linux distributions have them
built right into their installers, such as Mandriva's (formerly
Mandrakelinux), which calls its QtParted-like code DiskDrake. Quite a
lot of people choose to boot such installers _solely_ to use the
partition management screens. They then save changes and reboot rather
than continuing with the rest of installation.

To use QtParted, you select a disk drive on the far left, then select a
partition in the tree display that then is shown. (A graphical view of
that drive's partitions is shown at the top.) Doing so should bring up
a "Resize partition" dialogue, where you can _either_ use a graphical
slide control to specify the new size _or_ enter MB numbers in the fields
beneath.

> I was doing something wrong so qtparted did not work for me, not
> knowing the proper steps to accomplish partitioning. This will be on a
> Linux only box, No windows or gates.

OK, but without some more exact description of what went wrong, it's
difficult to get you past the problems.

In any event, what you've added in the above paragraph makes clear that
Partition Magic and QtParted actually provide some functions you _don't_
need, along with one that you do. Your problem (as it turns out) is
simply how to partition a machine for use by Linux. You either have no
partitions currently on the target hard drives, or don't care about
what's on there. The good news is that you've simplified the problem,
for us!

Partition Magic and QtParted are tools that don't merely carry out
partitioning, but (specifically) do so while preserving the existing
disk contents, making existing partitions larger or smaller at the
user's direction. This is nice to know about, but a lot more than you
need.

> I have Linspire 5.0.347, Ubuntu 5.10, Kubuntu 5.10, Suse 10.0, and a
> couple others to try.

Good news: Any of those should be suitable. And, since you don't care
about the current contents of the two hard drives, you really can't go
wrong. You might just want to pick some distribution installer's
"automatic partitioning" function, to let it decide on your behalf what
partitions to create, and where. (If you have ever used the drives to
hold any sort of programs or data, odds are that they'll contain
existing partitions. Therefore, you may need to tell the installer, at
some point, "Yes, I'm sure I want to use all disk space, and don't want
to preserve any existing data." This cross-check is typically in place to
help people avoid making rash decisions they would later regret.)

Why? Because that code will do at least a reasonable job, and
partitioning will be one thing fewer to worry about. Just give it a
try.

--
Cheers,
Rick Moen Support your local medical examiner: Die strangely.
rick@linuxmafia.com