extended / logical partition

[Ed Wilts]

On Mon, May 10, 2004 at 03:48:42PM -0700, JCA wrote:
> Here is my drive.  What I was trying to do is replace the Win95 with a 
> Linux ext3 file system on /dev/hda4.  So there is no easy way to do it 
> with fdisk? 
> 
>   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/hda1             1      2416  19406488+   0  Empty
> /dev/hda2   *      2417      2429    104422+  83  Linux
> /dev/hda3          2430      2462    265072+  82  Linux swap
> /dev/hda4          2463      4865  19302097+   f  Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
> /dev/hda5          2463      4865  19302066   83  Linux

The problem is that hda4 and hda5 use the same physical space - hence
the start and end blocks overlap.  You can't wipe out hda4 without also
wiping out hda5.  I'm not sure what you expect to get out of formatting
that partition - you certainly won't get any more usable space.

I did a quick google search for you to give you an introduction to
partitions, and here's a good link to read:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/install-guide/ch-partitions.html

The link may have wrapped so watch for that.

-- 
Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts at ewilts.org
Member #1, Red Hat Community Ambassador Program