SOLVED

>That's 4 partitions, which is very similar to the maximum

Yes .......Bill Cohane pointed this out to me....I was under the mistaken
assumption that Linux counted partitions like DOS does and only includes
primary partitions in the four partition limitation.

I created the Linux 82  Swap within the existing Dos extended partition
using Partition Magic and then installed Linux.....I used Linux FDISK to
create the Native 83 partition using the remaining free space ...pointed
Linux Install to my existing  Linux swap and Linux completed the
install...it is running great now !

>  In general, I'm not a big fan of multi-boot installations,

< In general > I normally don't use multi boot partitions preferring
swapable drive bays  but this particular box was specifically built as a
support box.....it is a open case...two floppies....multiple swapable drive
bays... a CD ROM that I can boot from containing all my DOS and Windows
diagnostic utilities........it's all in one of those old and extremely well
built 286 Desktop cases.

The two Windows installs allow me to access and work with FAT 32 and NTFS
partitions. I can swap out cards, RAM  CPU's .drives and peripherals and I
have just enough hard drive space to install and check out or support a
particular application. All OS's have full Network support. The 1 GB Linux
install is for educational and screwing around purposes. One GB is more
then another space for Linux...I installed almost everything and I am using
a total of 450 megs. I am using System Commander 4.0 Deluxe to handle the
multi boot and I am very impressed with  how smooth and seamless everything
installs and runs......however I can only imagine what a nightmare it would
be if System Commander took a powder !

m

>  Let's see:  Win95 primary, Win NT primary, Extended FAT16, Linux
>primary.  That's 4 partitions, which is very similar to the maximum
>number of partitions allowed per drive.  Won't let you create a fifth
>even though there's space?  I'd say that's your problem.
>especially on a drive that's "only 2GB".  Two different Windows
>versions on one machine is not too hard to justify, but anything more
>and I figure it's time to hit the garage sales for someone's used
>486.
>
>David G

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