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| Thread ID: 36502 | 2003-08-12 00:25:00 | Partitioning disk for dual-boot OS, with XP, FREE of charge? | argus (366) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 166990 | 2003-08-12 00:25:00 | Exploring possibilities of creating a dual-boot system, with my current Windows XP Professional and Debian Linux. The Linux disks and small manual I've got have a untility that purportedly does all the partitioning for you; but the manual warns that this is not designed to work with Windows XP. The partitioning utility in XP itself is somewhat opaque (or maybe I'm missing a simple point and will kick myself when told [try not to be too unkind :-) ]). Summoning the appropriate part of the XP disk management unility, it instructs "click on an unallocated portion of the disk". But the disk all seems to be "allocated" at present, and I can't see any advice on how to "deallocate" some, in order to create my new partiion(s). The 20 GB disk is between 2/3 and 3/4 full, and I can easily free more space if needed. Looking at previous posts on partitioning, it seems the all-purpose answer is "use Partition Magic". I went to the vendor's site, and discover I'm going to get stung nearly $US70, for a product I may only use once, or at best only once or twice a year. How can I partition my disk to accommodate Linux, FREE of charge (or at minimal cost) but preserve my XP Pro and all the files and applications associated with it? Or is this impossible? Argus |
argus (366) | ||
| 166991 | 2003-08-12 01:35:00 | If you are Wgtn I can help if not email me | kiwibeat (304) | ||
| 166992 | 2003-08-12 02:33:00 | AFAIK, The "Non-XP Compatibility" is only if your HDD is formatted with NTFS, so it would apply to WinNT4 and Win2K too! | Chilling_Silently (228) | ||
| 166993 | 2003-08-12 18:14:00 | Yes, you're right; it's NTFS that's the problem, not specifically XP. | argus (366) | ||
| 166994 | 2003-08-12 22:44:00 | There are other non-destructive partition tools such as Ranish. They can be a bit difficult to use though. | -=JM=- (16) | ||
| 166995 | 2003-08-13 00:34:00 | I know there is a linux utility called fips that can change the size of your partition, but I don't think that it works on NTFS partitions. I have used it before and all seemed to be fine, although it gives quite a few severe warnings about not being responsible. | Tulkas (4402) | ||
| 166996 | 2003-08-13 01:41:00 | Have a look for qtparted. It is still in development, and it appears to need to be run from Linux ... which might be a problem for you :D ... but some of the comments refer to Knoppix, so perhaps botoing the Knoppix "Live Cd" system and running the qtparted from that would work. I wouldn't try fips. :D I don't think it deals with anything past FAT32. Older versions didn'tr like even that. Backup and repartition from scratch would be easiest. Or toss in another hard disk. They are so cheap these days it is a real option. (Certainly more cost-effective than a commercial partitioner :D). Or a second hand 5GB drive would be big enough. |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 166997 | 2003-08-13 03:58:00 | Isn't the partition manager in Mandrake 9 was pretty safe to use on NTFS partitions??? I know it can resize partitions for you. msn me at [powastryker at icqmail . com] or icq [54497547] and I'll see if I can help you further |
PoWa (203) | ||
| 166998 | 2003-08-14 03:58:00 | From the Mandrake getting started document provided with 9.0: "Warning. NTFS partitions. Windows 2000, NT, or XP users should be very careful not to resize NTFS partitions with GNU/Linux. This will damage your data. In this case, use an appropriate ... application such as Partition magic." |
Graham L (2) | ||
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