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Appendix E. An Introduction to Disk Partitions

However, due to the way in which partitions are accessed in Linux, you should avoid defining more

than 12 logical paritions on a single disk drive.

Now that we have discussed partitions in general, let us see how to use this knowledge to install Red

Hat Linux.

E.1.4. Making Room For Red Hat Linux

There are three possible scenarios you may face when attempting to repartition your hard disk:

Unpartitioned free space is available

An unused partition is available

Free space in an actively used partition is available

Let us look at each scenario in order.

Note

Please keep in mind that the following illustrations are simplified in the interest of clarity and do not

reflect the exact partition layout that you will encounter when actually installing Red Hat Linux.

E.1.4.1. Using Unpartitioned Free Space

In this situation, the partitions already defined do not span the entire hard disk, leaving unallocated

space that is not part of any defined partition. Figure E 8, shows what this might look like.

Figure E 8. Disk Drive with Unpartitioned Free Space

If you think about it, an unused hard disk also falls into this category. The only difference is that all

the space is not part of any defined partition.

In any case, you can simply create the necessary partitions from the unused space. Unfortunately, this

scenario, although very simple, is not very likely (unless you have just purchased a new disk just for

Red Hat Linux). Most pre installed operating systems are configured to take up all available space on

a disk drive (see Section E.1.4.3).

Next, we will discuss a slightly more common situation.