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You only need to read this if you intend to use dual booting on your system. This is where you can run 2 or more operating systems on one computer. The following instructions assume you are already using Windows and can boot into windows to perform some of the tasks. If you are taking over a separate Drive on your computer the Linspire installation disk has the options to take over a Drive or partition already made available during instalation process.

Hard drives can be partitioned to run separate operating systems on the same disk, or to break down a disk into manageable chunks for storage. Partitioning is performed on a new or reformatted drive. You must partition a drive in order to use it. Even if you're going to give it all to Windows. The program that we use most often to partition a hard drive is FDISK, which comes with DOS & Windows. Nowadays, people partition drives for two reasons: to support multiple operating systems, and to use disk space more efficiently.

Microsoft Windows comes with an newer version of Fdisk.exe, That you can use to partition your drives. In most cases, the computer manufacturer will have already set up disk partitions on your hard drive when you get a new computer or drive. You can use Fdisk.exe to make changes to your partitions, but you will lose any files stored on them unless you back them up first.

In most cases, you shouldn't use Fdisk.exe if your hard disk is already partitioned with a third-party scheme. Try using the third party's partition tools instead. You may determine if your hard drive was partitioned with a third-party product by examining the Config.sys. If you find references to the following files: Dmdrvr.bin, Sstor.sys, HarDrive.sys, or Evdisk.sys, you are using a third-party disk partitioner

Tip: Commercial products, such as PartitionMagic, make hard disk partitioning much easier. These instructions describe using FDISK for PCs using DOS 3 or later. New the Partition Resizer: The first free program to resize and move partitions without data.

Warnings: The FDISK procedure deletes all files on the hard disk. This action is not reversible. Be sure to back up any files you want to keep.

The Steps:

First make a Startup Disk: To create a Startup Disk, in Windows click the Add/Remove Programs icon in Control Panel. (if not using Windows try Bootdisk.com )

1. First start the computer in DOS. The screen will show the C:\ prompt. You can use a boot disk to start your computer, the screen will show the A:\.

2. Now type FDISK . The partition window will appear with menu options.

3. Enter 5 if you're partitioning a second drive, and select the drive; otherwise, skip to the next step.

4. Enter 1 (Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive).

5. Enter 2 (Create Extended DOS) to create a partition.

6. Enter N when the program asks if you want to use the maximum available size.

7. Designate the amount of disk space to allocate to the second partition (the partition will be assigned the next drive letter).

8. Type a name for the new partition and press Enter. The partition menu will appear.

9. Repeat steps 5 through 8 to create additional partitions.

10. Exit the partition command by Press Esc.

11. Now you can Format the newly created partitions or using the Linspire instalation disk select the partition to install and the instalation process will format it for you.