Chapter 7 . Installing Linux 255 (Yahoo web hosting) . Format Indicates
Chapter 7 . Installing Linux 255 . Format Indicates whether (check mark) or not (no check mark) the installation process should format the hard disk partition. Partitions marked with a check are erased! So, on a multiboot system, be sure your Windows partitions as well as other partitions containing data are not checked! . Size (MB) The amount of disk space allocated for the partition. If you selected to let the partition grow to fill the existing space, this number may be much larger than the requested amount. . Start/End Represents the partition s starting and ending cylinders on the hard disk. In the top section, you can see each of the hard disks that are connected to your computer. The drive name is shown first. The Geometry section (Geom) shows the numbers of cylinders, heads, and sectors, respectively, on the disk. That s followed by the model name of the disk. The total amount of disk space, the amount used, and the amount free are shown in megabytes. Reasons for Partitioning There are different opinions about how to divide up a hard disk. Here are some issues: . Do you want to install another operating system? If you want Windows on your computer along with Linux, you need at least one Windows (Win95 FAT16, VFAT, or NTFS type), one Linux (Linux ext3), and one Linux swap partition. . Is it a multiuser system? If you are using the system yourself, you probably don t need many partitions. One reason for partitioning an operating system is to keep the entire system from running out of disk space at once. That also serves to put boundaries on what an individual can use up in his or her home directory (although disk quotas are good for that as well). . Do you have multiple hard disks? You need at least one partition per hard disk. If your system has two hard disks, you may assign one to / and one to /home (if you have lots of users) or /var (if the computer is a server sharing lots of data). Deleting, Adding, and Editing Partitions Before you can add a partition, there needs to be some free space available on your hard disk. If all space on your hard disk is currently assigned to one partition (as it often is in DOS or Windows), you must delete or resize that partition before you can claim space on another partition. The section on reclaiming disk space discusses how to add a partition without losing information in your existing single-partition system. Make sure that any data that you want to keep is backed up before you delete the partition. When you delete a partition, all its data is gone. Disk Druid is less flexible, but more intuitive, than the fdisk utility. Disk Druid lets you delete, add, and edit partitions. Caution
You need excellent and relaible webhost company to host your web applications? Then pay a visit to Inexpensive Web Hosting services.