On 7 September 2011 15:26, <main-request@lists.alug.org.uk> wrote:

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Today's Topics:

1. Partitioning Laptop (Richard Parsons)
2. Re: Partitioning Laptop (Tim Green)
3. Re: Partitioning Laptop (steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk)
4. Re: Partitioning Laptop (Brett Parker)
5. Re: Partitioning Laptop (Richard Parsons)
6. Re: Partitioning Laptop (samwise)
7. Re: Partitioning Laptop (Richard Parsons)
8. Re: Partitioning Laptop (Stuart Bailey)

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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 13:16:36 +0100
From: Richard Parsons <richard.lee.parsons@gmail.com>
To: main@lists.alug.org.uk
Subject: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop
Message-ID: <20110907121636.GA7728@myfreesolicitor.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. It currently has Windows 7 installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu.

Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four partitions. The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. If I begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free space, then I'm told that it is "unuseable". I believe that the extra partitions are for recovery etc.

So what can I do? Is there a way of getting Ubuntu installed without disturbing the contents of the partitions already setup?

Thanks in advance
Richard

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 14:05:28 +0100
From: Tim Green <timothy.j.green@gmail.com>
To: main@lists.alug.org.uk
Subject: Re: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop
Message-ID:
<CAE-w7J+rNTsE+pe1WNRxRAhC+oLKAOk0i0HGx9n46rq8W=YVdg@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On 7 September 2011 13:16, Richard Parsons
<richard.lee.parsons@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. ?It currently has Windows 7 installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu.
>
> Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four partitions. ?The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. ?If I begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free space, then I'm told that it is "unuseable". ?I believe that the extra partitions are for recovery etc.

The partition is probably tagged and formatted with NTFS - delete it
from within Windows to be sure it is the right (empty!) one. When you
start the Ubuntu installer again it should see the hole.

Good luck,
Tim.

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:33:29 +0100
From: steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk
To: main@lists.alug.org.uk
Subject: Re: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop
Message-ID: <4E6772A9.3070709@hst.me.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I'm no expert, but I believe that a HDD set up with a partition table
can handle at most 4 "primary" partitions. That sounds like how your
laptop has been set up.

If you change one of the "Primary" partitions to an "extended"
partition, then you can add extra "logical" partitions within the
extended partition.

I doubt that it is possible to change a partition from Primary to
Extended c/w logical partitions without destroying the data on it. That
would imply having to backup, repartition, then restore.
Also, I don't know how Windows would cope with the new logical
partitions. In my previous experience, it can be quite fussy about
drive letters etc.

I would also be quite dubious about the "recovery" partitions still
working if you change the partition structure that they're expecting to see.

I suppose it depends what's on the 2nd partition. Is it just for data?
Is Windows on partition 1? If that's the case you might get away with
it. e.g.
1) Backup partition 2 (whatever drive letter it is).
2) Delete partition 2.
3) Recreate Partition 2 as an Extended Partion using all the free space.
4) Create a Logical partition to restore the windows data onto.
5) Create as many logical partitions as you need to need to install
linux. e.g. 2 / (root) and swap
6) Restore the windows data onto the relevant partition.
7) Install linux...

Good luck!
And backup ***EVERYTHING*** before you start!!!
Steve

On 07/09/11 13:16, Richard Parsons wrote:
> Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. It currently has Windows 7 installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu.
>
> Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four partitions. The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. If I begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free space, then I'm told that it is "unuseable". I believe that the extra partitions are for recovery etc.
>
> So what can I do? Is there a way of getting Ubuntu installed without disturbing the contents of the partitions already setup?
>
> Thanks in advance
> Richard
>
> _______________________________________________
> main@lists.alug.org.uk
> http://www.alug.org.uk/
> http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main
> Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 14:41:28 +0100
From: Brett Parker <iDunno@sommitrealweird.co.uk>
To: main@lists.alug.org.uk
Subject: Re: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop
Message-ID: <20110907134128.GA29936@miranda>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

On 07 Sep 13:16, Richard Parsons wrote:
> Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. It currently has Windows 7 installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu.
>
> Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four partitions. The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. If I begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free space, then I'm told that it is "unuseable". I believe that the extra partitions are for recovery etc.
>
> So what can I do? Is there a way of getting Ubuntu installed without disturbing the contents of the partitions already setup?

You're basically screwed - you can only have 4 primary partitions,
usually when wanting to go over this you make on of those 4 an extended
partition and new partitions get created in that.

I'd take a diskimage of the disk in current state, using something like
clonezilla, then rejig the disk to remove any partitions that you don't
need, (you'll probably want a couple of partitions for linux), and go
from there.

The reason for using something like clonezilla to take an image first
should be reasonably obvious, means that if you need to get back to that
state you can :)

Cheers,
Brett.

------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 14:43:13 +0100
From: Richard Parsons <richard.lee.parsons@gmail.com>
To: main@lists.alug.org.uk
Subject: Re: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop
Message-ID: <20110907134312.GA7897@myfreesolicitor.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

On Wed, Sep 07, 2011 at 02:05:28PM +0100, Tim Green wrote:
> On 7 September 2011 13:16, Richard Parsons
> <richard.lee.parsons@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. ?It currently has Windows 7 installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu.
> >
> > Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four partitions. ?The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. ?If I begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free space, then I'm told that it is "unuseable". ?I believe that the extra partitions are for recovery etc.
>
> The partition is probably tagged and formatted with NTFS - delete it
> from within Windows to be sure it is the right (empty!) one. When you
> start the Ubuntu installer again it should see the hole.

Thank you for that tip. I'm hoping to keep the windows partition though. My idea is to reduce the windows partition to say 80GB, to free up approximately 400GB for the Ubuntu installation. If I delete the second partition won't the windows installation be lost?

> Good luck,

I think I'm going to need it! I'm wondering whether what I want to do is even possible. Perhaps I need to be looking at a tool like Ghost?

Richard

------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 14:28:09 +0100
From: samwise <samwise@bagshot-row.org>
To: ALUG <main@lists.alug.org.uk>
Subject: Re: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop
Message-ID:
<CAEW9pC43xiSRGcWObteijh7+oMyyin0f1XNQC8DGv-2FaY7taw@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

> Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. ?It currently has Windows 7 installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu.
>
> Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four partitions. ?The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. ?If I begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free space, then I'm told that it is "unuseable". ?I believe that the extra partitions are for recovery etc.
>
> So what can I do? ?Is there a way of getting Ubuntu installed without disturbing the contents of the partitions already setup?
>
> Thanks in advance
> Richard

Richard.

The problem is that there can only be a maximum of four primary partitions on a
disk, and your laptop ships with all four of them already in use. Simply
resizing one of the existing partitions won't help, because you won't
be permitted to create a fifth primary partition in the freed up
space.

The easiest option is to just delete the two recovery partitions (you
should already have made some recovery DVDs from Windows, before doing
anything at all). That will allow you to resize the Windows partition
and create a new one for Linux. This approach means that if you ever
need to restore Windows on your laptop from scratch, you will be
wholly reliant on the recovery DVDs you made.

The more complicated option is to backup the two existing recovery
partitions to files, and make a note of their partition information.
Then you can delete them both and create a new extended partition in
their place. This extended partition can contain multiple logical
partitions with it - so you can recreate the recovery partitions from
the files you backed them up to, within the new extended partition.
This approach will allow you to then create a new additional Linux
partition, either as a primary partition or within the extended
partition. If you ever need to reinstall Windows again, this way you
will have the choice of rebuilding the laptop from either the recovery
partitions on the disk or from the recovery DVDs you made instead.

When I bought my HP laptop last year, I used GParted Live
[http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php] implement an extended
partition. The recovery partitions were fairly small in relation to
the total size of the disk so I figured it wouldn't hurt to leave them
intact.

Peter.

------------------------------

Message: 7
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 15:04:15 +0100
From: Richard Parsons <richard.lee.parsons@gmail.com>
To: main@lists.alug.org.uk
Subject: Re: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop
Message-ID: <20110907140414.GA7947@myfreesolicitor.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

On Wed, Sep 07, 2011 at 02:33:29PM +0100, steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk wrote:
> I'm no expert, but I believe that a HDD set up with a partition
> table can handle at most 4 "primary" partitions. That sounds like
> how your laptop has been set up.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that's how it it.

> If you change one of the "Primary" partitions to an "extended"
> partition, then you can add extra "logical" partitions within the
> extended partition.
>
> I doubt that it is possible to change a partition from Primary to
> Extended c/w logical partitions without destroying the data on it.
> That would imply having to backup, repartition, then restore.
> Also, I don't know how Windows would cope with the new logical
> partitions. In my previous experience, it can be quite fussy about
> drive letters etc.

Yes, and sorry, I now realise that I'm asking about Windows, which is hardly fair for a Linux mailing list!

> I would also be quite dubious about the "recovery" partitions still
> working if you change the partition structure that they're expecting
> to see.

Yes, good point.

> I suppose it depends what's on the 2nd partition. Is it just for
> data? Is Windows on partition 1? If that's the case you might get
> away with it. e.g.

I believe that Windows is installed on the second partition, but now I'm even unsure about that. I find it hard to understand why Windows would require four partitions.

> 1) Backup partition 2 (whatever drive letter it is).
> 2) Delete partition 2.
> 3) Recreate Partition 2 as an Extended Partion using all the free space.
> 4) Create a Logical partition to restore the windows data onto.
> 5) Create as many logical partitions as you need to need to install
> linux. e.g. 2 / (root) and swap
> 6) Restore the windows data onto the relevant partition.
> 7) Install linux...
>
> Good luck!

Thanks

> And backup ***EVERYTHING*** before you start!!!

Good advice.

Do laptops ever have room for putting in a second hard drive? That would be a better option. I suspect they don't though...

Richard

------------------------------

Message: 8
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 15:26:15 +0100
From: Stuart Bailey <stuart@linusoft.co.uk>
To: main@lists.alug.org.uk
Subject: Re: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop
Message-ID: <201109071526.18015.stuart@linusoft.co.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

On Wednesday 07 September 2011 13:16:36 Richard Parsons wrote:
> Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. It currently has Windows 7
> installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu.
>
> Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four
> partitions. The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. If I
> begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free space,
> then I'm told that it is "unuseable". I believe that the extra partitions
> are for recovery etc.
>
> So what can I do? Is there a way of getting Ubuntu installed without
> disturbing the contents of the partitions already setup?
>
> Thanks in advance
> Richard
>
> _______________________________________________
> main@lists.alug.org.uk
> http://www.alug.org.uk/
> http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main
> Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

Hi Richard,
Why don't you make an image of the windows partition using dd, then repartition
as you like. dd the image back to the disk (same partition size of course), then
install Ubuntu with dual boot. You won't need to worry about NTLDR in the MBR,
since you will be using GRUB to boot either.

This way also gives you a backup of Windows should things go wrong.

Stuart

Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS
LinuSoft (Managing Director)
Linux Specialist & Software Developer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phone: (0845) 658 3563
Direct: +44 (0) 1953 878162
Fax: +44 (0) 1603 858583
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.linusoft.co.uk

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