Disk Partitioning with Win 2000 Server

[KewlSaint]

Hi,
I have multiple OS on one HDD (20 GB) but on different partitions (C,D,E,F,G). Win98SE, Win NT 4.0 SP6a and Win2k Server.
I have free space of around 3.5 GB in which I wanted to install RH 7.0. I want to make available that free space by creating a partition but I cant. Win 2000 Server does not allow me to partition that free space. it shows that there is unallocated space but when I right click it the "Create Partition.." is disabled.
What to do ???

[NDC]

How did you manage to get 5 partitions on a single hard disk? I believe the maximum number of partitions in NTFS, FAT, and/or FAT32 you can create per hard disk is 4 partitions in Win2k...

[lynchmob]

There is a limit in both Win2k and Linux of 4 active partitions per disk.Linux will install on a logical drive,though.
lynch

[KewlSaint]

Yeah, I figured it out that Win2k will not allow me to make more partitions.
But what to do if I want to install RH Linux ? Should I have to remove few partitions ?

[solo-pc-tech]

BootitNG will let you create more than four primary partitions. See here http://www.bootitng.com/index.html.

But you could also use PowerQuest's PartitionMagic and Drive Image in combination to rearrange, backup and convert the partitions on your hard drive. I do it fairly often. PartitionMagic can convert Primary to Logical.

But I have a second hard drive where I store all the image files and I copy the DOS PartitionMagic and Drive Image executables to that hard drive in a folder called "EXE". I also put lots of other DOS utilities in that folder. When I want to use any of the EXE programs, I boot with a boot floppy.

Drive Image 4.0 will also create image files on a CD burner.

[lynchmob]

Solo-pc-tech,that link is dead.
lynch

[NDC]

http://www.bootitng.com

[jad1097]

Each drive can only have four primary partitions under W2K but I don't know exactly how many can go in an extended patition but I have had up to six partitions in an extended partition. You can also hide partitions such as Linux partitions from W2K.

Create an extended partiton and create two or three partitions for Linux there. Linux like W2K does not need to be installed on the active or primary partition. I use partition magic (http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/) for creating partitions. It's worth the money. You can also try Ranish Partition Manager (http://www.users.intercom.com/~ranish/part/) which is free.