From 1ea73eea5ecc6a8ed901316049259aee737ee554 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joey Hess Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 19:51:38 +0000 Subject: move manual to top-level directory, split out of debian-installer package --- fi/preparing/nondeb-part/i386.xml | 120 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 120 insertions(+) create mode 100644 fi/preparing/nondeb-part/i386.xml (limited to 'fi/preparing/nondeb-part/i386.xml') diff --git a/fi/preparing/nondeb-part/i386.xml b/fi/preparing/nondeb-part/i386.xml new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b89864d7e --- /dev/null +++ b/fi/preparing/nondeb-part/i386.xml @@ -0,0 +1,120 @@ + + + + + Partitioning From DOS or Windows + + +If you are manipulating existing FAT or NTFS partitions, it is +recommended that you either use the scheme below or native Windows or +DOS tools. Otherwise, it is not really necessary to partition from DOS +or Windows; the Linux partitioning tools will generally do a better +job. + + + +But if you have a large IDE disk, and are using neither LBA addressing, +overlay drivers (sometimes provided by hard disk manufacturers), nor a +new (post 1998) BIOS that supports large disk access extensions, then +you must locate your Debian boot partition carefully. In this case, +you will have to put the boot partition into the first 1024 cylinders +of your hard drive (usually around 524 megabytes, without BIOS +translation). This may require that you move an existing FAT or NTFS +partition. + + + + + Lossless Repartitioning When Starting From DOS, Win-32 or OS/2 + + + + +One of the most common installations is onto a system that already +contains DOS (including Windows 3.1), Win32 (such as Windows 95, 98, Me, +NT, 2000, XP), or OS/2, and it is desired to put Debian onto the same disk +without destroying the previous system. Note that the installer supports +resizing of FAT and NTFS filesystems as used by DOS and Windows. Simply +start the installer, select the option to Manually +edit partition table , select the partition to +resize, and specify its new size. +So in most cases you should not need to use the method described below. + + + +Before going any further, you should have decided how you will be +dividing up the disk. The method in this section will only split a +partition into two pieces. One will contain the original OS and the +other will be used for Debian. During the installation of Debian, you +will be given the opportunity to use the Debian portion of the disk as you +see fit, i.e., as swap or as a file system. + + + +The idea is to move all the data on the partition to the beginning, +before changing the partition information, so that nothing will be +lost. It is important that you do as little as possible between the +data movement and repartitioning to minimize the chance of a file +being written near the end of the partition as this will decrease the +amount of space you can take from the partition. + + + +The first thing needed is a copy of fips which is +available in the tools/ directory on your nearest Debian +mirror. Unzip the archive and copy the files +RESTORRB.EXE, FIPS.EXE and +ERRORS.TXT to a bootable floppy. A bootable floppy can +be created using the command sys a: under DOS. +fips comes with very good documentation which you may +want to read. You will definitely need to read the documentation if +you use a disk compression driver or a disk manager. Create the disk +and read the documentation before you defragment the disk. + + + +The next thing needed is to move all the data to the beginning of the +partition. defrag, which comes standard with DOS 6.0 and +later, can easily do the job. See the fips documentation +for a list of other software that may do the trick. Note that if you +have Windows 9x, you must run defrag from there, since +DOS doesn't understand VFAT, which is used to support for long +filenames, used in Windows 95 and higher. + + + +After running the defragmenter (which can take a while on a large +disk), reboot with the fips disk you created in the +floppy drive. Simply type a:\fips and follow the directions. + + + +Note that there are many other partition managers out there, in +case fips doesn't do the trick for you. + + + + + Partitioning for DOS + + + +If you are partitioning for DOS drives, or changing the size of DOS +partitions, using Linux tools, many people experience problems working +with the resulting FAT partitions. For instance, some have reported +slow performance, consistent problems with scandisk, or +other weird errors in DOS or Windows. + + + +Apparently, whenever you create or resize a partition for DOS use, +it's a good idea to fill the first few sectors with zeros. Do this +prior to running DOS's format command, from Linux: + + +# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdXX bs=512 count=4 + + + + + -- cgit v1.2.3