Installation guide

26 .1 .4.3. Using Free Space fro m an Act ive Part it io n
This is the most common situation. It is also, unfortunately, the hardest to handle. The main problem
is that, even if you have enough free space, it is presently allocated to a partition that is already in
use. If you purchased a computer with pre-installed software, the hard disk most likely has one
massive partition holding the operating system and data.
Aside from adding a new hard drive to your system, you have two choices:
Destructive Repartitioning
Basically, you delete the single large partition and create several smaller ones. As you
might imagine, any data you had in the original partition is destroyed. This means that
making a complete backup is necessary. For your own sake, make two backups, use
verification (if available in your backup software), and try to read data from your backup
before you delete the partition.
Warning
If there was an operating system of some type installed on that partition, it needs to
be reinstalled as well. Be aware that some computers sold with pre-installed
operating systems may not include the CD -ROM media to reinstall the original
operating system. The best time to notice if this applies to your system is before you
destroy your original partition and its operating system installation.
After creating a smaller partition for your existing operating system, you can reinstall any
software, restore your data, and start your Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation.
Figure 26.10, “ Disk Drive Being Destructively Repartitioned” shows this being done.
Fig u re 26 .10. Disk Drive Bein g Dest ru ct ively Rep art it io n ed
In Figure 26.10, “ Disk D rive Being Destructively Repartitioned” , 1 represents before and 2
represents after.
Warning
As Figure 26.10, “ Disk Drive Being Destructively Repartitioned” , shows, any data
present in the original partition is lost without proper backup!
Non-Destructive Repartitioning
Here, you run a program that does the seemingly impossible: it makes a big partition
smaller without losing any of the files stored in that partition. Many people have found this
method to be reliable and trouble-free. What software should you use to perform this feat?
Red Hat Ent erprise Linux 5 Inst allat ion G uide
260