linux partitioning

[wforl]

My two sata hardrives are laid out as so.....

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a280/benjidrummer/Harddrive.jpg

but when i go and install fedoroa under

Use space on selected drives and create default layout. i get this....

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a280/benjidrummer/kkk.jpg

i thought that linux uses unallocated space which it can then convert to its own layout the ex2 or ex3 if i remember, well ive only got 50 gb unallocated,



so i went a step back and changed to custom layout, now im presented with this

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a280/benjidrummer/kk.jpg

whats the 100gb bit and whats the 205gb? my drives are allocated as per the top picture, can somone explain these results please

[Shaz]

97.5GB is 100GB and 146GB must be the 205GB.

Windows doesn't read the entire partition whereas Linux might be reading more of it due to the loss within NTFS.

[Richie P]

Lemme get this right, you're using a 160gb sata drive and a 200gb sata drive.

Windows is installed on the entire 200gb drive and you've taken 100gb of the 160gb as more ntfs for windows.

If thats correct, then firstly, I'd suggest changing the 100gb partition to FAT32, or if you don't have enough back up space to do that, create another partition on that drive from windows for a FAT32 partition that you can write to and read from in both fedora and windows. Linux can read NTFS just fine with a few additional programs, but is unable to *safely* write to it. I strongly suggest a FAT32 partition for transferring data between your operating systems. I also use this 'temp' drive as i call it for my firefox bookmarks which can then be shared between OS's so changes made in one persist in the other. Lemme know if you want to know how to do this.

With respect to you're strange problem, i'd put it down to the fact you're using sata drives and it's reporting the max disk space wrongly (either drivers or the fedora install program). The custom layout you selected second is the best. Then install to the remaining area of that drive.

The simple layout is a Swap partition equal to you're RAM, and then the rest as ext3 (FYI ReiserFS is better IMO, but nto available in fedora). Read up elsewhere if you want more customised layouts.

HTH :)