hi,

i need help with this guys.

i have three FAT32 partitions namely C,D,E on my PC.
i have windows 98 SE installed on C drive.

i want to install Red Hat Linux on E drive but i don't know how to convert it into the linux-compatible partition without disturbing my other two partitions (C and D).

i have been told by one of friends that i should use partition softwares like "Partition magic". But he also told me that if these softwares are not properly used, they could even CRASH my hard disk.

i wud also like to know that in future if i uninstalled linux how can i revert back to my FAT32 partitions ????
can fdisk be used or not ????

please guide me and suggest me some other alternatives.

thanks

Hey jags. Welcome to GIDForums.

Using linux fdisk and probably about any other disk partitioning tool you should be able to go in and change the filesytem type on partition 3 to anything you want. The danger comes when you want to resize an existing partition that has data on it already. That is when partition magic comes in handy (but it can be dangerous).

My advice is to delete the 3rd partition (don't touch the other 2) and create two partitions for linux. Use 90-95% of the space for a Linux Native type and then create a 4th partition of the remainder as Linux Swap. Linux runs better using a small swap partition.

If you want to remove linux later and get a FAT32 type partition back, you can do the exact same thing. As long as you don't touch your other partitions you are safe.

HTH,
d