Partitioning a hard drive....

Hello guys,
I will soon buy a 640 gig WD hard drive and i want to partition it into 3 partitions which will use a different operating system. I ve done this a long time ago using PartitionMagic with win 98 and linux but nowadays i cant find a decent partitioning program (partition magic doesn't work with win 7 and vista)

so can you recommend a partitioning program and step to step instructions on how to?

As i said earlier i want to divide it into 3 partitions
1.win 7 64 bit - 500 gigs
2.win xp 32 bit - 100 gigs
3.linux - 40 gigs

[TangleFoot]

Step 1: install Windows XP (press C to create a partition)
Step 2: install Windows 7 (choose 'Custom') and leave some unallocated space for Linux
Step 3: install Linux

Alternatively, you can use GParted to create a couple of partitions for your Windows installations beforehand. As before, leave some unallocated space for Linux.

[NJuice]

640GB is more like 590GB.

Plan accordingly.

[zezzex]

If it's a new hard drive, you don't really need to worry. Windows 7 install will give you the option to set up your partions. Partition magic and other software comes in handy if you want to change partitions sizes that already have data on them.

[HL_Maniac]

I recently used a free one called PartitionLogic. Seemed pretty good.

Originally Posted by NJuice

640GB is more like 590GB.

Plan accordingly.

what do you mean?

Originally Posted by zezzex

If it's a new hard drive, you don't really need to worry. Windows 7 install will give you the option to set up your partions. Partition magic and other software comes in handy if you want to change partitions sizes that already have data on them.

ah ok .
i didnt know you can do that without a partition program..

Originally Posted by TangleFoot

Step 1: install Windows XP (press C to create a partition)
Step 2: install Windows 7 (choose 'Custom') and leave some unallocated space for Linux
Step 3: install Linux

Alternatively, you can use GParted to create a couple of partitions for your Windows installations beforehand. As before, leave some unallocated space for Linux.

Provided i do that , will I be able to choose what OS i want to boot with when i open my computer just like with partition magic?

[Mangr0v3]

Is partition magic also a bootloader?

[Toto pectore]

The boot-loader depends on which OS you will install last.

If you install your OSs in sequence like TangleFoot posted (Xp-Win7-Lin) you should not have any problems, because GRUB should recognize all OSs well. Microsoft's boot managers are kinda stupid in this way and you will need to do some editing if you want to add any non-Microsoft OS in Win boot manager menu ( http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Ubuntu )

[NJuice]

Originally Posted by AW@R

what do you mean?

That's how it is with hard drives.
They don't do the 1024 kilobytes = 1 byte, but use 1000 instead.

A 160GB hard drive is actually 149GB, 250GB = 232GB, 320GB = 298GB, etc

640GB = 596GB

[TangleFoot]

Originally Posted by NJuice

They don't do the 1024 kilobytes = 1 byte, but use 1000 instead.

In essence this happens because human beings use base 10 instead of base 2 - binary - to measure things. For a more detailed explanation, read this.

Originally Posted by NJuice

That's how it is with hard drives.
They don't do the 1024 kilobytes = 1 byte, but use 1000 instead.

A 160GB hard drive is actually 149GB, 250GB = 232GB, 320GB = 298GB, etc

640GB = 596GB

ah ok i knew that but i didnt know that the difference would be so vast....

Originally Posted by TangleFoot

Step 1: install Windows XP (press C to create a partition)
Step 2: install Windows 7 (choose 'Custom') and leave some unallocated space for Linux
Step 3: install Linux

Alternatively, you can use GParted to create a couple of partitions for your Windows installations beforehand. As before, leave some unallocated space for Linux.

doing it this way the boot loader will be linux huh?

[Fuzz Bucket]

Originally Posted by AW@R

doing it this way the boot loader will be linux huh?

The boot-loader would be Grub. I would recommend doing it in that order as installing a Microsoft OS last will most likely not work well for you when looking at the behavior of the boot-loader.