Not able to make partitions of linux

i have Windows xp in my system, i am using 80gb hard disk. in that i
have used 70 GB for windows Xp and i want to install Red hat linux 9.0.

I can boot the red hat linux for the installation but when i go to the
step of partitioning for linux. i can make only two partitions like /,
and /boot.. or swap and /, or any two combinations if i go for the
third patition it will say it cannot allocate partitions.


So any one can help regarding this..
One more thing that i made four partions for the WIndows in that one
NTFS and other three are FAT32....

[email]kirankumar.277@gmail.com[/email] wrote:
[color=blue]
> i have Windows xp in my system, i am using 80gb hard disk. in that i
> have used 70 GB for windows Xp and i want to install Red hat linux 9.0.
>
> I can boot the red hat linux for the installation but when i go to the
> step of partitioning for linux. i can make only two partitions like /,
> and /boot.. or swap and /, or any two combinations if i go for the
> third patition it will say it cannot allocate partitions.
>
>
> So any one can help regarding this..
> One more thing that i made four partions for the WIndows in that one
> NTFS and other three are FAT32....[/color]

Ah-hah! This is part of your issue!

You need to use virtual partitions, because you've probably used up at
least 2 of the available 4 "primary" partitions: if you then try to add
/boot, /, and swap as primary partitions, you lack slots to put them in.

On 2006-10-15, [email]kirankumar.277@gmail.com[/email] <arunreddy199@gmail.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> i have Windows xp in my system, i am using 80gb hard disk. in that i
> have used 70 GB for windows Xp and i want to install Red hat linux 9.0.
>
> I can boot the red hat linux for the installation but when i go to the
> step of partitioning for linux. i can make only two partitions like /,
> and /boot.. or swap and /, or any two combinations if i go for the
> third patition it will say it cannot allocate partitions.
>
>
> So any one can help regarding this..
> One more thing that i made four partions for the WIndows in that one
> NTFS and other three are FAT32....[/color]

PC hardware is only able to recognize 4 primary partitions on a hard
disk device. This is an operating-system independent limitation. You
need to define your free space as an extended partition and create your
logical linux partitions in there. Linux has no problems booting from a
logical partition contained in an extended partition.

Or you could install another hard drive and get 4 more primary
partitions to work with.

--

John (john@os2.dhs.org)