linux on acer ferrari

Hi. I want to install Mandriva in my ferrari 4000. By default i have the two 40 gb partitions. I want to have a third partition for linux. How can i do this without a clean install of my notebook?

 

Partition Magic is the easiest tool I've used.

 

Is there a chance that i can lose my files? Or Partition Magic is safe?

 

Most Distros have tools that can resize an existing partition. DO NOT get partition magic..
Get the latest Knoppix
Boot it up
open a console
type
qtparted
Use that to set up your partitions. Its a friendly GUI with support for more filesystems than Partition Magic, and it looks better too.
My laptop came with an 80 gig NTFS partition preinstalled on an 80 gig hard drive.
I used qtparted to shrink it down to 40 gigs.. and then I rebooted into the Installer CD for my distro.
Note: Some distros won't detect existing Windows XP installations, and/or they won't config the bootloader properly for dual-boot.. Be sure to check first!! Debian works well.

Or if you already have another distro and want to mess with partitions, get QTParted here:
http://qtparted.sourceforge.net/screenshots.en.html

 

I have already downloaded partition magic, but i can only get the trial verson. IT DOESNT ALLOW ME TO RESIZE MY PARTITIONS. Is there another program that i can use? Or somebody has a link to a good version of partition magic 8.0?
Sidicas, sorry, i dont understand QTParted. Can i use it in windows? because in the FAQ's, says that i have to run it from Linux, so i have to get a live CD?

 

Partition Magic is safe as well as qtparted and a few others. I have used both and never had an issue resizing or converting live partitions However ......

If there is some data you absolutley cannot afford to loose back it up , take a copy then back it up and then back it up again. Best case is take an image of your existing configuration if possible (Ghost / True Image / etc...) 'casue as Forest Gump says ...'$h*t happens'

Software is one of the few consumer products that right in EUL aggreement it says (parahrasing here) - "if <product> does not work or destroys some data - we are sorry but no responsible"

My favorite software expression for recommendations to others is 'it worked last time I used it'

 

somebody has a link to a good version of partition magic 8? Because i dont have knopix, so i cant use qtparted.
I have saved all my important files, only thing i need is the software for resize my partitions.

 

Now I know you are not asking for a pirated copy of Partition Magic http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/system_performance/pm80/index.html

If you are looking for cheaper / shareware / freeware products then google 'free disk partition software' and good luck

 

sorry, i thought partition magic was free. I was wrong. I will follow your advice on google. Thanks

 

*sigh* As I said above, qtparted is the absolute BEST tool to use. It can handle all the filesystems you could possible want to run under Linux including XFS, and ReiserV4. Also it can handle resizing of filesystems that won't run under Linux like NTFS and Fat32. Its freely available and the people currently working on the development of qtparted have deep connections to the developers of the paritioning tools for Linux.

The people at PartitionMagic DO NOT have the same connections to the Open Source developers of the Linux partitioning tools. Its just not as well suited for the job.

Best and easiest way to get qtparted is to get an ISO of Knoppix Linux and burn it to a CD (perfectly legal and FREE).. qtparted is INSIDE the Knoppix CD ISO. You're going to WANT a knoppix CD anyway incase you have troubles during installation or are having other software problems (Knoppix makes a good diagnostic and recovery disc.. Not the best, but its good enough).

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

A Knoppix CD is bootable just like a Windows XP installation disk and a Linux Distro installation Disk.
Knoppix DOES NOT install anything on your hard drive. It runs ENTIRELY from the CD-ROM.
I think you should do more research about Linux before you try to install it or you're probably going to be very frustrated.

Resizing an NTFS partition is not an easy thing to do.. A lot of tools out there say they will "resize" an NTFS partition, but in reality will just truncate it.. That's why they say you should run defrag first.. As far as I know, there is only one tool (command-line) out there that can properly resize an NTFS partition without any risks.. And the graphical user interface for that tool is qtparted.

I have never heard of a tool that could resize a live and running NTFS partition. That's a very tricky and dangrous process. So you're not going to find any NTFS resizing tools to run while running Windows, and if you do, you won't be able to run it on the partition of your Windows installation. Most tools will reboot you into "limbo" where you can safely resize the NTFS partition while it is not live.. I'm sure Parititon Magic probably does it this way also.

 

The acer ferrari has two fat32 partitions (nothing of NTFS). I will download knoppix and burn it, thanks for the advice.