Win98/Linux partition (+ UAE)

[Cyberus]

I wonder if anyone had any advice...
I got a new laptop at the weekend. It has a 20gb HD and came with Win98 installed. The last time I partitioned a drive it was my university machine, but now I want to try using Linux and also i want to start using UAE. So the questions are:
Where do I get partition software from (preferably free!)
Is there any disadvantage to having loads of partitions

I would like a boot partition for Win98, a data partition (could this be accessed by Windows, Linux and WinUAE if it is using the PC file format, how about FAT16, FAT32?), and a Linux boot partition.
Also, does it make any difference if I have a separate swap partition, or can I have this as part of the Linux partition?

Sorry for all the Qs, and I'm sorry it's PC related!
Cheers

[jj]

i dont know about uae, but u wont be able to access a fat16 or fat32 partion from linux AFAIK.

Partition magic is a good prog for partitioning drives on the fly, but isn't free, u could always just back up the files u want/need off win98 and reformat the drive.

[levelLORD]

Hi!

For a good partitioning software try system commander, latest version is 7.05, and it is having its own nice boot utility, and a partition utility of course. It is easy to use, and you don't need to re-format harddrives. http://www.v-com.com/download/index.html
There should be a third party utilities for accessing fat32 partitions for linux. You can also run linux from fat32 partition (RedHat8.0).

regards

levelLORD

The newest Linux distributions allow you to change the size of existing Windows partitions while installing Linux.  And you definitely can read/write fat16 and fat32 from linux.

For example:
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/91/mainfeatures

Andrew

About the advantages of multiple partitions:

I would definitely have a separate /home partition, and save all your work in it or a different separate data partition.  When you upgrade the system, you can completely wipe out /boot and /usr, and your data is still good.

Usually I have a swap, a small /boot, a /home, and most everything else on /, as well as a fat32 data partition shared with Windows.

Andrew

Cyberus wrote:
I wonder if anyone had any advice...
I got a new laptop at the weekend. It has a 20gb HD and came with Win98 installed. The last time I partitioned a drive it was my university machine, but now I want to try using Linux and also i want to start using UAE. So the questions are:
Where do I get partition software from (preferably free!)
Is there any disadvantage to having loads of partitions

I would like a boot partition for Win98, a data partition (could this be accessed by Windows, Linux and WinUAE if it is using the PC file format, how about FAT16, FAT32?), and a Linux boot partition.
Also, does it make any difference if I have a separate swap partition, or can I have this as part of the Linux partition?

Sorry for all the Qs, and I'm sorry it's PC related!
Cheers

Let's see....

You might try Simtel , a site for wintel free/share/demo-ware something like Aminet, but needing a lot more clicks....: Oh, they also do Mac)

Simtel.net

"#m#thl#n" wants some fancy work with Linux partitions, and the other emulator on the CD wants a QNX one, but WinUAE and DosUAE both live in the M$ part of your disk.  You can, and probably should, use 'hardfiles' on your Win<^H><^H><^H>Lose-Dows partitions--WinNT, Win2k, and WinXP give you the advantage of being able to use larger ones, over 2 gig, but it might be nice to keep them small enough to back up to your biggest media, such as a DVD(+/-/whatever)R[O/A]M....

Anyway.....UAE has built-in support for the M$ filesystems.... Don't know about Mac's, though. :-)

[Siggy]

i dont know about uae, but u wont be able to access a fat16 or fat32 partion from linux AFAIK.

Yes you can - and many distros have this prebuilt into the kernel.

Another not well known tidbit - if you're into recompiling linux kernels (which really isn't that hard or technical nowadays) is that you can include support for the Amiga file system (not FFS to my knowledge).

Siggy

[Siggy]

I would like a boot partition for Win98, a data partition (could this be accessed by Windows, Linux and WinUAE if it is using the PC file format, how about FAT16, FAT32?), and a Linux boot partition.

I'm assuming you want to be able to get maximum usage from all of your OS's/Emulators - so you'll need to go with a filesystem that is a 'common demoninator' -- I'm going to suggest FAT32, as Windows needs it, and Linux can read it and use it.

Many people have  suggested using hardfiles for WinUAE - As I use UAE on Linux, I'd say go with their suggestion.
Under Linux there's a bunch of 'dirty tricks' I can do by NOT using Hardfiles - but that's another kettle of fish.

As for Dual Booting - You'll want to install Windows first - it will want the first partition, and will more than likely set the MBR on your harddrive (someone correct me if I'm wrong on this)
Installing Linux second will let you put Lilo in place and you'll be able to boot Linux from wherever you put it.

Also, does it make any difference if I have a separate swap partition, or can I have this as part of the Linux partition?

Linux swap is its own partition.

Siggy.

[yoodoo]

Linux will repartition the hard drive during installation and suggest defaults for new (Linux) partitions. You will need /root and /swap as a minimum.  I would recommend using a floppy or CD to boot into Linux as Windows doesn't like sharing the boot block and can be hard to boot/recover if you fiddle with it. All this will be sorted easily with an up-to-date distro.

When you've installed Linux, keep your common dox on the windows partition somewhere, so you can access them under both OSs.

As much as I hate to say it, (Linux) UAE is a poor shadow of WinUAE, especially in the setting up/ease of use dept. Speed wise, there isn't much difference (naturally) but UAE is not as far on as WinUAE.

For goodness' sake don't use a hardfile: why write to a huge file unnecessarily? Both UAE and WinUAE will use the respective OS filesystems transparently and there is absolutely no need to compile/implement AFFS in Linux unless you are directly attaching a real Amiga hard drive to the IDE interface (as many have done with their A1s).

Either copy your current Amiga files to CD/Zip etc or network the laptop and Amiga together to transfer your existing setup.  For a once-only operation, a parallel connection will do fine.