On 8/4/05, Mike McCarty <mike.mccarty@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hongyu Sun wrote: > > On 8/2/05, Jim Cornette <fc-cornette@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > >>Hongyu Sun wrote: > >> > >> > > [enough for attributions] > > >>10 gig is a bit small for a modern Linux installation. Ext3 is a common > >>choice for Fedora. > > > > > > I am thinking I will buy a new piece of hard drive. Will that work? > > Seems Fedora only recognize 4 partitions. My current hard drive > > already have 4. Will Fedora recognize the new hard drive? > > Certainly a new drive will work if you set it up. > > You seem not to understand partitions very well. I'll give you a > little tutorial, then perhaps you will have a better feel. > > There are four (4) levels of format on a hard drive. (Actually, > even on floppies there are 3, but they get kinda munged together > by the tools.) > > Level 1 (also called low level format): This lays out tracks, sectors, > etc. on the platters. With modern drives this should only be done > once by the manufacturer. This is the physical level format. > > Level 2: This installs a Master Boot Record (MBR) and Partition Table > (PT) on the drive. Some consider the PT to be part of the MBR, some > consider it separate. Each of the partitions looks like a drive > (more or less) to the software. The idea is that different OS can > "own" each of the partitions. (There are additional, no longer relevant, > legacy addressing reasons for separate partitions.) Each partition has > a "start address", an "end address", a "type", and a "boot" attributes > associated with it. Inside the MBR is a little program which the > BIOS loads into memory and executes. This bootstrap looks for a > partition with "boot" (some say "active") set. There is supposed to > be only one set. Now, some boot managers are able to manage > "multi-boot" (like GRUB) so they may ignore the "boot" attribute. > YMMV. Anyway, most (all?) MBRs only allow 4 partitions, which may be > either Primary or Extended. Many MBRs only allow one primary. > > Level 3: This creates volumes (some say "logical drives"). Each primary > partition can have at most one volume in it. An extended partition is > allowed to have multiple volumes. In effect, an extended partition is > an extension of the partition table. So volumes created inside > an extended partition are in effect partitions themselves. Anyway, > each volume has a Boot Record (BR) on it. That's where I have > GRUB installed on my machine, not in the MBR. The BR has a little > bootstrap in it which is particular to the OS installed on > that volume, and which knows how to start that OS. > > Level 4: This creates file systems which can be mounted and read > and often includes an hierarchical directory system. > > > > > >>>Another question is how to set the double boot mode? It seems in the > >>>installation I set up this. But it just does not work at all. > > Without more information, no more help is available. What does > "it just does not work at all" mean? > > >>>Finally it said the installation is complete and I can reboot. But I > >>>am entered to Windows again. > > Is this what you mean? > > >>>I cannot find any documentation on the installation. Somebody told me, > >>>Redhat is good for beginners. But I still cannot follow. > Umm, you are not quite running Red Hat. You are running Fedora Core, > which is not the same thing. Hi, Thank you very much. But do I have to find exact Red Hat 9.x? Can Fedora Core do the same work of Red Hat 9.x? Seems Red Hat is not free any more? I can find a free Mandrake (www.linuxiso.org) which is mentioned on that software distribution platform list (http://software.sci.utah.edu). But I was told I am better off using Redhat and then was given this fedora link. Thank you, > [snip] > > >>I hope that I'm not misleading you here. Viewing this original posting, > >>I don't see mention of /dev/sda4 on your part. I read the thread before > >>posting and assumed the input was from you. > > > > > > What is the difference between /dev/sda4 and /dev/hda4? Sorry I had a > > typo. Should be hda > > [snip] > > hda : IDE hard disc 1 > hdb : IDE hard disc 2 > hdc : IDE hard disc 3 > ... > > sda : SCSI hard disc 1 > sdb : SCSI hard disc 2 > ... > > Minor note: yes, I know it's not IDE, but rather ATA. > Another minor note: USB drives also show up as "sd?". > > Anyway, ISTM that you don't need another drive. You > indicated (IIRC) that you had some free space on your > drive. If your PT entry 4 was unallocated, then > you could create an extended partition, then create > three (3) [at least, I'd put /home on another volume] > volumes in there for /boot, root (/), and for swap. > > I've heard that there is now no speed penalty for putting > swap into a file. If that be so, then I'd do it, because > it would make resizing swap much easier. > > YMMV > > HTH > > Mike > -- > p="p=%c%s%c;main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}";main(){printf(p,34,p,34);} > This message made from 100% recycled bits. > You have found the bank of Larn. > I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you. > I speak only for myself, and I am unanimous in that! >
