[RULE] install guide-partitioning

[Richard Kweskin]

Hard drive repartitioning

It is possible to non-destructively repartition your current hard drive to
create space for a RULE installation, and there are two routes that I know of
that will let you do so without losing your current installation. Both involve
using a software tool to shrink your existing partition(s) to create free 
space for a RULE installation. Be aware, as always, that manipulating your 
drive's partition table and Master Boot Record is RISKY BUSINESS and you 
should have both current backups of critical data as well as a bootable 
floppy disk that will let you access the system to straighten things out 
should it go poorly.

From a Microsoft Windows setup it is advisable to defragment the partition 
first so as to gain as much free space at the end of the partition as 
possible.

From a Gnu/Linux setup use a shell prompt and type the command

df -k

This will report how much unused storage you have available on the disk, and 
in which partitions it is located. A workable, minimal RULE installation can 
be done in about 200 or 250 MB. 500 MB should be enough for XWindow and a 
window manager. Less than this, and you should probably not start the 
process.

Next, perform your backups if you have not done so, and either create a boot
floppy from your current installation, or acquire one of the numerous pre-made
boot/root rescue disks that various people have made available on the 'Net. 
The one I currently use for my Gnu/Linux setup is ramf, which is available 
from
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/system/recovery/INDEX.html . Note that there
are a LOT of rescue disks here - take your time and decide what you like.

Now, you are ready for a repartitioning of the drive. Here is where you have 
the aforementioned two choices. You can use a commercial product, or a 
free/open source one. The two that I have previously used are Partition Magic 
by a company called PowerQuest, http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/ or 
parted, by the GNU Project, available at 
http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/parted.html.

Either one of these can do the job nicely.

Use it to shrink your current partition(s) in order to create sufficient free
space for your RULE installation. Note that parted CANNOT move the beginning 
of an ext2 or ext3 partition, so again, you may not be able to create enough 
continuous free space for a basic RULE installation. Ideally, you would like 
to have all of the free space available at the end of the drive, otherwise 
you will need to make adjustments in your other setup to allow for the new 
partitions that have appeared on the hard drive. This may be something you 
would like to avoid.


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