Red Hat LINUX ES 2.1 -, Installation Manual

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Appendix D. An Introduction to Disk Partitions 83
Figure D-7. Disk Drive With Extended Partition
As this figure implies, there is a difference between primary and logical partitions — there can only
be four primary partitions, but there is no fixed limit to the number of logical partitions that can exist.
(However, in reality, it is probably not a good idea to try to define and use more than 12 logical
partitions on a single disk drive.)
Now that we have discussed partitions in general, let us see how to use this knowledge to install Red
Hat Enterprise Linux ES.
D.1.4. Making Room For Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES
There are three possible scenarios you may face when attempting to repartition your hard disk:
•
Unpartitioned free space is available
•
An unused partition is available
•
Free space in an actively used partition is available
Let us look at each scenario in order.
Note
Please keep in mind that the following illustrations are simplified in the interest of clarity and do not
reflect the exact partition layout that you will encounter when actually installing Red Hat Enterprise
Linux ES.
D.1.4.1. Using Unpartitioned Free Space
In this situation, the partitions already defined do not span the entire hard disk, leaving unallocated
space that is not part of any defined partition. Figure D-8 shows what this might look like.