Hi everybody: I´m working with a HP Omnibook xe4400 P4,2Gh HD:30GB, 256RAM.It´s currently working fine under WindowsXP, and i have just one partition in the HD. My problem begins when i want to install Linux (RedHat 7.1/Suse 7.3).I used Partition Magic 7 to reduce de 30 Gb partition to 20 Gb and leave a 2nd partition to install Linux. It worked fine, but when i tried to install linux I got an error sayin somethin like the partition table was not OK and that it had to rewrite it in order to instal linux without problems (loosing all my XP data!). I tried that and tried repartitioning HD with Fdisk and installing just linux, but it say there are problems with partitions when formating too. I´ve been reading other messages and it seems recovery partitions can be the problem. I think HP xe4400 have it (not the operating system image but something else) and it comes with 3 recovery CD´s too. Now, my question is: Is there any way I can delete that partition so that I can install both Windows XP and Linux. If I delete it, will I be able to recover the original system from the recovery CD´s? Sorry about my english,( you can answer me in spanish if you want too),and thank you.

Interesting... Two OS's fighting for the primary partition. Remember there is still a BIOS limitation for partitions larger than 8Gb's. I don't know if this accurate though. That is why some BIOS's should be enabled with LBA(for Logical Block Addresing when installing Linux shared with other OS's). On the other hand, I've never used third party software to partition my hard drives since you may loose the sense at times for what exactly is getting accomplsihed. In other words, you not only need partitions with particular file system types to run different OS's in a single hard drive. You also need to understand that when you fdisk and format a hard drive the BIOS will need to tranlate this configuration from a hardware point of view. For example, BIOS will understand such configurations as heads, cylinders, sectors while the operating systems will understand it and display it to the user in the form of FAT, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS or Native Linux partitions. The first one (Windows) labeled as A, B , C letters for partitions, the second one (Linux) in the form of /dev/hda1, /dev/hda2 (dev for device, hd for hard drive or disk name, a or b for the physical disk, it is referring to and 1 for the slice (or partition wether it be primary partition, secondary, logical, extended, etc.) Correct? Moreover,and different from a windows enviroment, Linux treats each partition as a device. Each partition or slice is treated by Linux as a device for which a file system type needs to be mounted. If you need to dual boot between the two systems first make a plan on how you are going to divide and prepare your hard drive. If I were you I would fdisk and format that hard drive first with windows XP the first 2-3 GB's for the core operating system files (Your C:\ drive). Then proceed to install your XP and leave it like that. Leaving the rest of the free sapce intact. Then install Linux. Choose Disk Druid when prompted, an easy to undersand graphical way for fdisking. You will see your windows partition (C:\)from disk druid so leave it intact. But you can label it (using "Edit") something like /dosC if you later like to view/read/write to your NTFS partitions from Linux. Proceed then only to fdisk the free space you got. Partitions created by the Linux installation program should look like this (just an example): Device Start End Size(MB) Type MountPoint /dev/hda1 1 6 47 ext3 /boot /dev/hda2 7 499 3867 ext3 / /dev/hda3 500 523 188 swap NOTE: Assign the remaining free space a Win95 FAT32 partition type. This will ensure that your XP will not miss the free space you probably want to format later in NTFS (your extended D:\ partition in Windows... you may label it in Disk Druid /dosD). 50-100MB's should do fine for the /boot partitions which will contain the boot files needed to load your linux at startup As for / (the root) the rest of the GB's you want to assign to your linux can 6, 8, 10GB's whatever you choose. The installation program will distribute the file structure for you upon formatting in the space you choose for it. SWAP- Just the same amount of system ram you have in MB's will do fine but never assign less the half of it. When prompted where to install the boot loader make it to be in the Master Boot Record (this is where boot options are gonna be shared for both OS's when booting up your PC) Make Linux your default boot image and finish the setup. let the installation program do its job. When done, as soon as your restart you will be given the options to boot from XP or Linux. Boot from XP if you like to load it and from there goto My Computer Select D: drive right click on it and choose format. If you needed by any chance to use recovery cd's to repair a damaged XP installation remember that it is sharing the same master boot record with linux.. (first sector on C:| drive). Reinstalling XP may alter the boot loader information files found there, therefore, not giving you the option anymore to be prompted to choose linux next time you boot your system unless you have created a linux boot disk. You may read information on how to edit the lilo.conf file found in /etc/lilo.conf to prevent this from happening. PS- Some info brought to you here was taken from "RedHat Linux 7.3 Secrets" ISBN #0-7645-4948-0 and "General Linux 1 Exam Prep" ISBN #1-57610-567-9

I have a xe4400 and I wanted to install Mandrake Linux on it. I wiped the whole disk including the HP partition. The disk is blank! Bios is set to "auto" which gives LBA. I try to install Mandrake Linux 9.0 with /, swap and /home partitions within the first 8 GB of harddisk space, and STILL the partitioning fails, giving a message that the partition table is corrupted!! I start to wonder if it is possible to install linux on this laptop at all? So far it doesn't seem like it. daniel, have you found a solution?