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**TheCotMan** · June 13, 2005, 15:44

Originally posted by robman

I have a DVD of Mandriva Linux Lt. Edition 2005 along with a computer consisting of two hard drives. My first hard drive (primary C:) does not have enough space to install Mandriva. I would rather have it on my second hard drive (slave F:) anyhow.

If you wish to use one of the two common boot loaders (lilo or grub) you will need to modify the MBR on your C drive. This is often, not a problem, but still runs the risk of rendering your machine unbootable if something should go wrong. Make sure you have a backup and rebuild procedure, or emergency boot/repair disk for your present OS.

There is around 20 GB of space left which I wish to allocate 8 towards linux.

I have tried using Partition Magic to Partition the F Drive, but I run into a couple of problems. For example, the program will only allow me to make a new partition about 5.5 GB large. I'd rather the partition be bigger.

Are you able to resize the present partition on the disk to make it smaller and pushed to "the back of the disk" so that you can add the new partition to "the front of the disk" ? (I am saying, resize the existing "drive F:" partition to make it smaller and leave "unpartitioned space" equal to what you want Linux to use at the front of the disk.)

Many Linux installers assume that you have unpartitioned space available on one of your fixed disks. During the install process, they are directed to the fixed disk (by you) or automatically find a fixed disk with free space. To avoid problems on older hardware, it is best to have Linux install in a partition near the front of the disk. (Mostly not an issue with newer hardware and Linux distros/partition tools.)

Once you have unpartitioned space on a disk, you may need to tell your Linux Distro Installer's disk partition tool what disk to use. This is often a matter of specifying the drive by a common Linux convention. If your drives are ATAPI/IDE/EIDE, then your "c" drive is likely "/dev/hda" while your second hard drive is probably /dev/hdc, /dev/hdb or /dev/hdd. (Primary Master=/dev/hda, Primary Slave= /dev/hdb, Secondary Master=/dev/hdc, Secondary Slave=/dev/hdd.) It is difficult for me to tell you what drive letters (other than C:) map to what device name due to the ways that drive letters are assigned by different MS OS.

I have tried to mess around with an extended partition, but I believe I must be doing something incorrectly.

You can google for the answer to this, but here is an oversimplification of partitioning for a Linux install:
Two types: Primary or Extended
Drives mostly limited to 4 primary partitions.
Extended partitions can take the place of any single primary partition slot, and then can further be sub-partitioned.

Your installer should be able to use unpartitioned space-- just leave the amount of space you want to use available on the drive.

Now my computer hangs for a while when I start it up unless I kill some processes. I have no problem with this.

I do not understand what you are trying to describe here. How is a process killed? where? What OS is running when the process is killed?

What I am asking for is:
Can anyone direct me to a source of text to help solve my problem?

It is possible. We shall see.

I have searched google

Excellent.

**robman** · June 13, 2005, 19:26

Updated Situation:

I made the first partition on the F drive smaller, leaving 8 GB or unallocated space. A problem occured when I partioned the drive however. I got an error similar to "Too many clusters." When I rebooted and checked the partition, the unallocated space was left on the end of the drive, it was supposed to be in front.

So I shrug it off and try to install Mandriva anyway. The same problem occurs. I get a fatal error.

I am running out of ideas. Maybe you guys could contribute some more? (Thanks TheCotMan)

PS>
I am using Windows XP. When I said kill processes, I meant I bring up task manager and end all the adware processes. Due to these failed installations it seams two more are added to my list. jusched.exe and another smililar

**TheCotMan** · June 13, 2005, 23:50

Originally posted by robman

I made the first partition on the F drive smaller, leaving 8 GB or unallocated space. A problem occured when I partioned the drive however. I got an error similar to "Too many clusters." When I rebooted and checked the partition, the unallocated space was left on the end of the drive, it was supposed to be in front.

Well, this can be a problem. I seem to remember that NTFS allowed for "fractional cyl, partitions" while many other other fs/OS and disk tools do not. This can lead to a case where partition information is overlapping, and ultimately to corruption in the shared space. There is no guarantee that this is what is happening, but it is possible. (Google search for "NTFS" and "cylinder boundary" to learn more about this.) Two suggestions (#1, and #2) to workaround this will be provided in this response and should be used together if you are unsure of where the NTFS system begins with respect to the cylinder boundary.

As a kludge to work around your reported problem, (#1) the next time you resize to make it smaller, also choose to insert 2 new paritions at the beginning of the disk. Make each parition 4 to 5 GB in size, and see if you can, make them a filesystem that windows cannot use. (Don't format, just select a filesystem type not usable by windows.)

By placing these unused partitions before the existing partition that you move to the end of the disk, it may work around the problem you encountered, though you are not done yet.

Then, reboot the machine into windows and check the filesystem. (My computer, right click on the F: drive, properties, Tools, Check Now.) If you have enabled virtual memory and paging on this drive (F:) in addition to the default (C:) you may need to reboot in order for the check of F: to complete. Whatever is required, check the F: drive.

If you were not able to select 2 filesystems as unreadable by Windows as to be inserted before the F: drive, and the volumes (even if unformatted) were recognized as potentially ned volumes, MS Windows may reassign F: to the first new unformatted volume, G: to the second unformatted volume and H: to the old F: partition. In this case, you would want to perform the suggested volume check but on the H: drive.

OK. Now, I am assuming you were able to check what was the old F: drive for filesystem errors from within windows.

Now, while in MS Windows, Start -> Control Panel -> Administartive Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management

Locate the 2nd HD that had the old F: drive. It may ask you if it can build disk infor for that disk, and that is ok. From here you should be able to delete the two partitions that were place-holders at the begin of the disk. (Right click on the first 4GB partition, choose "delete partition" then repeat for the other 4GB partition and "delete partition." Now you should have ~8GB unpartition space at the beginning of the disk. Quit the disk management tool. Place the Linux install disk in the drive, and reboot to it.

Now when you install, we can hope that the Linux installer sees "two free primary partition slots" at the begin of the second disk that totals 8GB. Depending on how the installer works, it will probably want to make at least 2 partitions in that space. (One to mount as "/" (root) and one to set as swap.) To be safe and avoid the problem mentioned in the first paragraph in this reply, allow 1 unused cyl between the "F:" drive partition and the end of swap (#2). Let the install complete. (This "missing" cyl. can probably be reclaimed in MS Windows when using the "Disk Manager" and choosing to extend the F: partition, but as before, make sure you have backups.)

If it was a success, then reboot to windows. Once again, start the "Disk Management" tool. Have it check on the disk with the old F: drive. At this point, it may tell you information has changes, revert or update-- you should be able to figure out what to select. Now, if the old F: drive was relabeled to H: you can rename it back down to F: for any applications that previously mentioned F: that might otherwise be broken.

If you are using a bootmanager other than LILO/GRUB (like the one from the makers of PartitionMagic) then when you install your Linux system, you will probably want to install your Linux boot manager to the same partition as the root volume. (So, if the 2nd HD was /dev/hdd, and /dev/hdd1 was "/" and /dev/hdd2 was swap, then have the linux system boot manager install on /dev/hdd1 -- this *should* allow the present boot manager to notice it and use it and give you a two stage process to booting Linux-- 1, choose Linux from the first boot manager, and then 2 choose from GRUB/LILO.

If you are using the default MS Windows bootmanager then check with google on how you can force either grub or lilo to permit you to decide which OS to boot.

(It is possible to use the MS Windows boot manager to select a Linux system for boot, bit this is a klunky solution as it generally requires copying the kernel to the windows space after each kernel upgrade.)

So I shrug it off and try to install Mandriva anyway. The same problem occurs. I get a fatal error.

I am running out of ideas. Maybe you guys could contribute some more? (Thanks TheCotMan)

Yeah. See above. Though the forums are not meant for tech support, I was in a good mood and had a little time.

Don't expect this here every time.

I am using Windows XP. When I said kill processes, I meant I bring up task manager and end all the adware processes. Due to these failed installations it seams two more are added to my list. jusched.exe and another smililar

I really doubt that malware would be part of the Linux install. What is more likely is certain attempts to modify system settings in windows or the partitions used by windows leads to a trigger in the registry or application mapping (wrapper/trojan) that re-installs the malware (assuming it is malware and not a misconfigured service) and then hands off control of the caller to the real target so the OS can go back to its business as though nothing out of the ordinary has happened.

**robman** · June 15, 2005, 10:04

Ok found the solution:

After trying everything CotMan, I still had problems. This bothered me since he seems to know what he is talking about. So, I went and downloaded the Free 3 CD set instead of using my DVD version. It installed with no problems!

Next point of interest, PartitionMagic is garbage compared to Lilo. All I got were errors before I went through the installation process again and installed Lilo. I am now running Mandriva without a hitch.

Thanks for the input.

**TheCotMan** · June 15, 2005, 10:53

Originally posted by robman

Thanks for the input.

No problem. Now anyone else finding this thread with google knows what your solution was, and this helps more people than just you. (Problem with the DVD Media or DVD iso that you downloaded, or odd hardware issues.)

Next, you should consider joining a local Linux Users' Group (LUG.) They often have mailing lists and meetings as well as installfests and more importantly,technical support. Now that you have it installed, it will be a great help for you to have people nearby who you can meet with to discuss things. Presentations may introduce you to things you did not consider, and maybe some day, you will help others who are new to Linux.

**robman** · June 15, 2005, 19:03

Note-

Make sure your NTFS partitions are not hidden! This has happened to me. What occurs is you can not load into windows because windows can not find autochck.exe. This is usually a result of the partioning process. If this happens to you during the problem I had, you can fix it here http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windo...not-found.html

Not trying to turn this into Linux/Windows support palace, just thought I'd completely help someone with this problem. Reformatting can give a nasty anxiety attack.

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