Appendix G. Configuring a Dual Boot System

127

The initial values allocate all free space on the disk to the new partition. This is not what you

want, because this setting would leave no free space on your Windows partition. Press the [right

arrow] to increase the size of the Windows partition and decrease the size of the new (Linux)

partition; press the [left arrow] to decrease the size of the Windows partition and increase the

size of the Linux partition. When the sizes are what you want, press [Enter]. A verification

screen will appear.

If you type r (to re edit the partition tables), Figure G 1 reappears, allowing you to change the

partition sizes. If you answer c, a confirmation screen, Figure G 2, appears:

New boot sector:

Boot sector:

Bytes per sector: 512

Sectors per cluster: 8

Reserved sectors: 1

Number of FATs: 2

Number of rootdirectory entries: 512

Number of sectors (short): 0

Media descriptor byte: f8h

Sectors per FAT: 145

Sectors per track: 63

Drive heads: 16

Hidden sectors: 63

Number of sectors (long): 141057

Physical drive number: 80h

Signature: 29h

Checking boot sector ... OK

Ready to write new partition scheme to disk

Do you want to proceed (y/n)?

Figure G 2. FIPS Confirmation Screen

Answering y completes the resizing operation. A harmless error message may occur, stating in effect

that FIPS cannot reboot the system.

After a successful operation, the disk will have two partitions. The first partition (

hda1

or

sda1

) will

be used by Windows. We recommend that you start Windows (remember to remove the boot disk from

drive

A:

) and run scandisk on drive

C:

.

If you encounter any problems (for example, Windows will not boot), you can reverse the FIPS

resizing operation with the restorrb.exe command, which you copied to your DOS boot disk. In

case of any errors, read the FIPS documentation files (

fips.doc

and

fips.faq

), which describe

a number of factors that could cause the resizing operation to fail. If all else fails, you can restore

Windows with the backup you made.

The second partition (

hda2

or

sda2

) contains the space that the Red Hat Linux installation program

will use. When the Disk Druid screen appears during installation, delete this partition (the installation

manual explains how), then proceed with Linux partitioning.