Problem installing Fedora 8 on External 250 Gig USB Drive on Sony laptop

[albaker]

Problem installing Fedora 8 on External 250 Gig USB Drive


I am attempting to Install Fedora 8 on a External Hard Drive Attached via a USB port to a Sony VGN-SZ330P currently running Windows XP Pro.

The External Drive is.....: WD 2500BEV External USB Devive
per Windows Hardware Profile

The Drive shows (Under Windows) Type..: Local Disk
File System..: FAT32
Used Space...: 85.6 Gigs
FREE SPACE...: 147 GIGS


The system finds and 'boots' from the DVD.
Fedora Splash Screeen come up – I Select NEXT
I select English for the Install Lnaguage and the keyboard.

1st I Tried this
-----------------
Then a screen come up that says:
Installation requires partitiong of your hard disk. By default a
partition layout is chosen which is reasonable for most users

================================================== =========
| Use FREE SPACE on selected drives and create default layout
================================================== =========

Select the drives to use for this installation

----
| | sda 114471 MB ATAST9120821AS - Internal Hard Drive
---
----
| X | sdb 238473 WD2500BEV External
---
I changed the options so ONLY the sdb is selected and that the option
Use FREE SPACE on selected drives and create default layout

is selected. And select NEXT

Error Comes Up:
Error Partitioning
==================

Partitioning failed: Could not allocate partitions as primary
partitions as primary partitions.

Not enough space to create partition for /boot

HELP, the drive , per WINDOWS has over 147 GIGS of free space !!!
Why is the Install not using this “free space” ?

What is wrong and how do I fix it ?

Thanks so very much for any and all help

[zerovice]

So it seems all that free space is already formatted fat32 and really isn't free as far as anaconda is concerned. Essentially, anaconda is looking on your drive for unformatted space (or free space, however you like it). Depending on how that external drive is partitioned you may be able to do this relatively easy from within winblows by blowing away those drives in the excess space you want to use. Let me know if you haven't figured this out already. If not we can get you sorted in no time.

[brr872002]

Originally Posted by albaker

Problem installing Fedora 8 on External 250 Gig USB Drive


I am attempting to Install Fedora 8 on a External Hard Drive Attached via a USB port to a Sony VGN-SZ330P currently running Windows XP Pro.

The External Drive is.....: WD 2500BEV External USB Devive
per Windows Hardware Profile

The Drive shows (Under Windows) Type..: Local Disk
File System..: FAT32
Used Space...: 85.6 Gigs
FREE SPACE...: 147 GIGS


The system finds and 'boots' from the DVD.
Fedora Splash Screeen come up – I Select NEXT
I select English for the Install Lnaguage and the keyboard.

1st I Tried this
-----------------
Then a screen come up that says:
Installation requires partitiong of your hard disk. By default a
partition layout is chosen which is reasonable for most users

================================================== =========
| Use FREE SPACE on selected drives and create default layout
================================================== =========

Select the drives to use for this installation

----
| | sda 114471 MB ATAST9120821AS - Internal Hard Drive
---
----
| X | sdb 238473 WD2500BEV External
---
I changed the options so ONLY the sdb is selected and that the option
Use FREE SPACE on selected drives and create default layout

is selected. And select NEXT

Error Comes Up:
Error Partitioning
==================

Partitioning failed: Could not allocate partitions as primary
partitions as primary partitions.

Not enough space to create partition for /boot

HELP, the drive , per WINDOWS has over 147 GIGS of free space !!!
Why is the Install not using this “free space” ?

What is wrong and how do I fix it ?

Thanks so very much for any and all help

Installer is serching free space for /boot in your internal drive, as per your Bios settings.
Try to avoid default layout, choose custom partitions / /home /swap