Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I have a 600x with W98 installed. I have tested PuppyLinux on the machine through a live CD and it works like a dream - wifi included! So I would like to move to install Linux on the HDD and make the machine dual bootable.

As the W98 FAT32 partition uses the whole HDD I understand that I need to shrink the existing partition so that I can make additional partitions for Linux.

The problem I have is that the machine only has a CD-R and no floppy. The machine was bought second hand years ago and I do not have the systems disks or a boot disk. I've looked at Partition Magic but it seems that my hardware specifications do not meet the minimum requirements: ie no floppy.

I'd appreciate any suggestions for the most idiot-proof method of getting the necessary partitions onto the machine whilst maintaining the current W98 stuff. I know, for example, that some Linux distros come with partition capabilities. Will this do the trick or will I run into the same problem?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Emmett

If I am not mistakes, most versions of Linux includea formatting program, just Windows does, that will set everything up for you.

For example, I used Red Hat 9.0 on a 600E, and it allowed me the ability to set the size of the partitions that I wanted, as well as create extra partitions (I was planning on a dual boot).

I am confusing.
1) Since your TP has CD-R, you can use the bootable install CD of the Linux distro and it has built-in partitional utility to re-size the partition on the HDD just like what tfflivemb2 mention.
2)If you want to run the Paritional Magic utility on DOS command line to shrink the partition of HDD, you can burn a floppy image to CD and
create a bootable CD . Most CD-writing software packages support that. Then you can use this CD disk to boot your TP to DOS. Then it will work like you have real floppy driver.
PS: There is a excellent freeware (i.e VFloppy) can emulate a floppy driver. Unfortunatelly, its author only provide CHS GUI, no ENG GUI. Hope it help.

Bill, Yogibear

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll follow your advice.

Thanks again.

Emmett