Very Computer

I bought a new Compaq 900 series laptop preinstalled with Windows XP.
I then used Partition Magic (v8 - XP compliant) to carve out 2Gb at
the bottom for /boot, and 20Gb at the top for RH8 install and moved XP
(NTFS?) to the center of the disk.
When I try to boot RH8 from CD, it hangs after displaying the
"checking partitions" message.
Suggestions welcome, please post reply as email won't get through.
Thanks,Ron

It is not unknown for Partition Magic and Red Hat software to disagree
on what a suitable partition location and geometry is.  I've had
problems of this kind after creating partitions for RH with PM and then
installing RH in a dual-boot situation.  The problem seems to be
discrepancy between partition alignment as it is and as it is reported.
  I've communicated at length with both Red Hat and PowerQuest tech
support folks.  Each says, in effect, that the other doesn't know what
they're talking about!

One thing I found that did work flawlessly, though, is a different
partition manager, Paragon Partition Manager (www.partition-manager.com).

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Does anyone know if it's possible to use Linux fdisk program to change
the Windows XP partition type to somthing else, just long enough to
load RH8, then reset the Windows XP partition back to NTFS?
Im not sure, but if it only writes to the partition table, and not to
the partition itself, then it wouldn't change any data on the XP
partiton, and it should then allow Linux to boot and then I can
install Linux in it's own partition...
Also, is there some way to run Linux by using a Windows file as the
linux filesystem? I thought I heard somthing about that somewhere, but
I don't recall where.

I don't know if it will solve your problem, but it shouldn't damage the
NTFS filesystem.  Just don't try to boot Windows before you change it
back.

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