<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <title>Choose the Partitions to Format</title> <meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.73.2"> <link rel="start" href="index.html" title="Mandriva Linux Installation Guide"> <link rel="up" href="index.html" title="Mandriva Linux Installation Guide"> <link rel="prev" href="ask_mntpoint_s.html" title="Choosing Mount Points"> <link rel="next" href="diskdrake.html" title="Managing your Hard Drive Partitions with DiskDrake"><style xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/transitional" type="text/css"> <!-- body { font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px } table { font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px } --></style></head> <body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"> <div class="section" lang="en"> <div class="titlepage"> <div> <div> <h2 class="title"><a name="formatPartitions"></a>Choose the Partitions to Format </h2> </div> </div> </div> <div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;"> <table border="0" summary="Note"> <tr> <td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="images/note.png"></td> <th align="left">Note</th> </tr> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <p><a name="BIdNEW-formatPartitions-pa8"></a>This step is only available if you choose to reuse existing <span class="application">Linux</span> partitions. </p> </td> </tr> </table> </div> <p><a name="BId-formatPartitions-pa2"></a><a class="indexterm" name="BId-formatPartitions-it1"></a> You may wish to reformat some of your legacy <span class="application">Linux</span> partitions and to erase any data they contain. To do so, please select those partitions as well. </p> <p><a name="BId-formatPartitions-pa3"></a>Please note that you don't have to reformat all <a class="indexterm" name="BId-formatPartitions-it2"></a> pre-existing partitions. You must reformat the partitions containing the operating system (such as <code class="literal">/</code>, <code class="literal">/usr</code> and <code class="literal">/var</code>) but not the partitions containing data you wish to keep (typically, <code class="literal">/home</code>). </p> <p><a name="BId-formatPartitions-pa4"></a>Please be careful when selecting partitions. After the formatting is completed, <span class="emphasis"><em>all data on the selected partitions is deleted</em></span> and you won't be able to recover it. </p> <div class="itemizedlist"> <ul> <li> <p><a name="BId-formatPartitions-pa5"></a>Click on <span class="guibutton">Next</span> once you've selected the partitions to format. </p> </li> <li> <p><a name="BId-formatPartitions-pa6"></a>Click on <span class="guibutton">Previous</span> if you want to choose another partition for your new <span class="application">Mandriva Linux</span> operating system installation. </p> </li> <li> <p><a name="BId-formatPartitions-pa7"></a><a class="indexterm" name="BId-formatPartitions-it3"></a> Click on <span class="guilabel">Advanced</span> if you want to check for partitions with bad blocks on the disk. </p> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </body> </html>