I usually used Gparted to make an ext3 and a swap partition on a small hard
disk, but sometimes I booted Gentoo Linux from the live CD and used Gentoo Linux
Installer to make the partitions and then installed Damn Small Linux.
Apps>Tools> Install to hard drive (or something like this, I do not remember
exactly). As a partition I chose hda1. The rest is simple. It does not have a
partitioner that can make partitions on the hard disk.
When installing to a Jetflash it was easier. USB-HDD-Pendrive install and makes
its own Ext2 partition and a Fat32 partition on the stick.
I still do not know how to mount CDROM, USB flash drives and floppy under Damn
Small Linux. It is far more complicated to use than Ubuntu or Puppy or TinyME or
any other modern Linux.
At the office I use it on a very old computer to surf the web a few minutes a
day and it is really damn fast !

forums.whirlpool.net.au/.../286169.html

think this might be my problem.

download a copy of a Linux site?
it should have given you a option on how big you wanted the partition to be
and still keep the other operating system after that it would have done the
rest for you. if you have the capability to burn a cdrw try doing it at
least you'll have a back up of the operating system if something was to
happen