I presume XP is on hda1? You should use PM 8 to shrink up your Windows partition to whatever you think is right, AFTER you defrag XP. Then create a / partition, (10 gig is a gracious plenty), a swap, (2 gig should be plenty), and a /home partition, (again, 10 gig should be plenty.) Since you have the gigs, use as much as you want!
 
PM will just have you create partitions with file systems which you can always reformat with Suse. The main thing is to get those partitions made with PM.
 
Take note of how the partition table is laid out under PM, and which is hda1, hda2, hda5, hda6 and whatever. Then when you get to the Suse 9.1 install, be very patient, and really look over the partitioner as it is at first confusing. If you've never done this before, make certain you back up ALL your valuable Windows files!
 
Really look over the Suse partion utility really good before commiting to anything, and make certain you have everything right.
 
Suse is a little tough for new users, but is a really good and well rounded distro once it's up and running. Read the documentation on the Suse website about the partitioning utility, and be very familiar with it first. Good Luck!

Originally posted by moo113:

Quote:At the moment I have a 160GB HD and am running XP. I've partitioned (10GB and 150GB) it with Partition Magic 8.0 and I'm wanting to install Pro 9.1 onto that partition. 
I have the dvd-rom and have booted off of it but when it comes to the installation I'm stuck. As it looks to me it's trying to install it over my XP install on my first parition. Being the complete newbie that I am I'm not sure what to do.
 
How do I install it onto my partition and are there any other steps I need to take to get this to work?
----------------------------------------------------------------
 
I Think its bacaus you havent made the 10GB Partitino to a Primory drive, if you do that it works 100% i had same problem and im running Dual boot now with Windows XP and SuSE Linux 9.1
 
P.S. Yust a good idea, Make your partitinos before bootin, go into Partition Magic and make a 100MB Partition to Boot and a 512MB Partition to Swap and the rest of your partition to / (Root) so when you install it automaticley chooses the linux partitions to install on.
 
Good Luck an Have Fun

Leave the other partition empty (no logical drives, etc.), the Suse partion utility (not sure who wrote it, sorry) will find it. Suse likes 'free/empty' space to create its own root (system files), swap (virtual memory just like windohs) and home (your user files) patitions. Suse will install a 'loader' to the master boot record at the start of the drive so you will have to choose what you want to boot to after the Suse install.

Maybe I should explain with some more detail. When I first used PM8.0 before my Suse install, this is what my drive looked like starting from the 'front' of the drive: [primary(C:2k/6GB)][extended (D:2k_page/1GB)(Linux ext3/20GB)(E:2k_stash50GB)]. I know it doesn't equal 80GB 'cause of file system requirements. Anyway, the mistake I made was telling PM8.0 to format the Linux partition ext3. Just leave it empty like this example: [primary(C:2k)][extended(2k_page)(nothing, zip, deleted logical drive, nada, get it?)(2k_stash)]. Obviously, in the above examples I resized my 'stash' partition to 50 from 70Gigs and moved it to the 'end' of the drive creating a 20Gig 'hole' in the middle. The Suse partition manager will find the empty 'hole' and automatically 'divvy' it up.
 
P.S. Suse likes Reiserfs file system. If the power goes out alot in your area or you have a flakey computer, BACK YOUR STUFF UP BEFORE MOVING ANYTHING AROUND! Suse 9.1 is pretty cool and probably the best Linux yet so it is worth the hassle to check it out.