Red Hat LINUX ES 2.1 -, Installation Manual

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84 Appendix D. An Introduction to Disk Partitions
Figure D-8. Disk Drive with Unpartitioned Free Space
When you think about it, an unused hard disk also falls into this category. The only difference is that
all the space is not part of any defined partition.
In any case, you can simply create the necessary partitions from the unused space. Unfortunately,
this scenario, although very simple, is not very likely (unless you have just purchased a new disk just
for Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES). Most pre-installed operating systems are configured to take up all
available space on a disk drive (see Section D.1.4.3).
Next, we will discuss a slightly more common situation.
D.1.4.2. Using Space from an Unused Partition
In this case, maybe you have one or more partitions that you do not use any longer. Perhaps you have
dabbled with another operating system in the past, and the partition(s) you dedicated to it never seem
to be used anymore. Figure D-9, illustrates such a situation.
Figure D-9. Disk Drive With an Unused Partition
If you find yourself in this situation, you can use the space allocated to the unused partition. You will
first need to delete the partition, and then create the appropriate Linux partition(s) in its place. You
can either delete the partition using the DOS
fdisk
command, or you will be given the opportunity
to do so during a custom installation.