Disk Partitions

Nearly every modern-day operating system uses disk partitions, and Red Hat Linux is no exception. When installing Red Hat Linux, it will be necessary to work with disk partitions. If you have not worked with disk partitions before (or would like a quick review of the basic concepts) please read the An Introduction to Disk Partitions appendix in the Official Red Hat Linux Reference Guide before proceeding.

Please Note: If you intend to perform a workstation- or server-class installation, and you already have sufficient unpartitioned disk space, you do not need to read this section, and may turn to the section called A Note About Kernel Drivers . Otherwise, please read this section in order to determine the best approach to freeing disk space for your Red Hat Linux installation.

In order to install Red Hat Linux, you must make disk space available for it. This disk space needs to be separate from the disk space used by other operating systems you may have installed on your computer, such as Windows, OS/2, or even a different version of Linux. This is done by dedicating one or more partitions to Red Hat Linux.

Before you start the installation process, one of the following conditions must be met:

Your computer must have enough unpartitioned disk space available to install Red Hat Linux.
Your computer must have one or more partitions that may be deleted, thereby freeing up enough disk space to install Red Hat Linux.

If you are not sure that you meet these conditions or want to know how to free up more space for your Red Hat Linux installation, please refer to the Official Red Hat Linux Reference Guide .