OK to install on a logical partition

[Editor's note: This tip is from the R3 days. R4 and later installs into a logical partition just fine. However, the bundled version of Partition Magic won't see logical partitions, so if you want to do this, do your partitioning with a 3rd party tool, format the partition with FAT, and then boot BeOS from floppy and CD and initialize the partition with BFS.]

Although the R3 install manual (correctly) claims that the BeOS won’t install onto extended partitions, it will install into logical drives created in those partitions. Here’s an example (what I did):

Before:

• 2 GB primary DOS partition (C:) labeled “Win98″;
• 2 GB extended DOS partition with a logica drive (D:) labeled “BeOSsoon” (so
  I was optimistic).

To create an 800mb BeOS drive out of D:, I:

1.) Cleared everything off D:.

2.) Ran fdisk to delete the logical drive D:.

3.) Rebooted.
4.) Ran fdisk to create two logical drives, D: (“blank”,
1.2Gb) and E: (“BeOSnow”, 800Mb).

Then I was able to install the BeOS onto my bus 0, partition 5, which is how that E: space showed up. The BeOS installer will initialize it at the appropriate time, with your permission.