Just Delete a Partion. Hello this is the first time i have ever replyed so i am sorry iff i am a bit crap. I had the same problem with a HP i have got so i figured out which partion was useless and deleted it using GParted and the resized the HD with GPated again pretty simple, Hope that helps.
On 7 September 2011 15:26, main-request@lists.alug.org.uk wrote:
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Today's Topics:
- Partitioning Laptop (Richard Parsons)
- Re: Partitioning Laptop (Tim Green)
- Re: Partitioning Laptop (steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk)
- Re: Partitioning Laptop (Brett Parker)
- Re: Partitioning Laptop (Richard Parsons)
- Re: Partitioning Laptop (samwise)
- Re: Partitioning Laptop (Richard Parsons)
- Re: Partitioning Laptop (Stuart Bailey)
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.
- Backup partition 2 (whatever drive letter it is).
- Delete partition 2.
- Recreate Partition 2 as an Extended Partion using all the free space.
- Create a Logical partition to restore the windows data onto.
- 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.
- Backup partition 2 (whatever drive letter it is).
- Delete partition 2.
- Recreate Partition 2 as an Extended Partion using all the free space.
- Create a Logical partition to restore the windows data onto.
- 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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