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Thread ID: 99015 2009-04-16 09:07:00 Vista + Ubuntu/Partitions, etc kettles (14332) Press F1
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765691 2009-04-16 09:07:00 I'm trying to set up my laptop to run both Vista and Ubuntu. It's a Toshiba Satellite A300 with Intel Dual Core 2.0ghz, 4gb RAM, 320gb HDD. Running Vista Home Premium 32bit. I used Disk Management to shrink the main partition, and installed Ubuntu.

My HDD now has five partitions:

248.12GB - Vista
38.57GB - Ubuntu
8.24GB - Primary Partition - Probably the Toshiba Recovery Partition

1.69GB - Primary Partition - ???
1.46GB - EISA configuration - ???

Can anyone those last two?

As for the Toshiba recovery drive, I have made recovery discs (using the application that comes with Toshy computers) so do I need to worry about keeping it?

Here is what I really want - and feel free to suggest something different - Vista and Ubuntu each on their own partition (30GB-ish?) and the rest of the space in one large partition for my music/documents/audio+video editing projects. Why won't Vista let me shrink its partition any smaller than 248GB so I can do it?

One more thing - I would really like to ditch Vista for Windows XP. I already own XP from two old, unused machines, but don't have the install discs. Seeing how I have already paid for it (twice), how would I go about installing it on my laptop, can I just borrow a copy and use my serial number?
kettles (14332)
765692 2009-04-16 09:31:00 Not sure what all the partitions are - normally the minimum for a Linux install is / (the root partition where the OS and apps go) plus a swap partition. For a home system I would add a /home partition which will allow you to keep you files and setup (e.g. Firefox settings etc) when you decide to change distributions (which most people do at some stage). johnd (85)
765693 2009-04-16 09:46:00 You can transfer the licsense over and use it on your new machine.

But you must get the right CD, depending on the licsense.

Vista will not allow you to shrink the partition more than a certain file because there are certain system files that cannot be moved(such as pagefil.sys)

What you can try is, download gparted iso and burn it to a cd, then boot from it and partition from there.sourceforge.net

Backup all yoru data first in case something goes wrong.
Blam (54)
765694 2009-04-16 09:52:00 A nice tool set is Part Magic (which I think uses gparted) - you can download it from en.kioskea.net . johnd (85)
765695 2009-04-16 10:01:00 A nice tool set is Part Magic (which I think uses gparted) - you can download it from en.kioskea.net .

Part Magic is just Gparted+a few extra tools

For the OP I think gparted is sufficient, but parted magic is certainly a useful toolkit
Blam (54)
765696 2009-04-17 09:24:00 Cool, cheers for the suggestions, I'll check out those apps and see how I get on.


For a home system I would add a /home partition which will allow you to keep you files and setup (e.g. Firefox settings etc) when you decide to change distributions (which most people do at some stage).

Not quite sure what you mean by "/home" partition (I'm new at Linux :)), is that just moving the /home directory to default on another partition? Can I do it within Ubuntu or will I need to use something else?
kettles (14332)
765697 2009-04-20 08:34:00 Not quite sure what you mean by "/home" partition (I'm new at Linux :)), is that just moving the /home directory to default on another partition? Can I do it within Ubuntu or will I need to use something else?

Best done during the install (by not choosing the default install where you get no options on partitioning). I think it is best to choose the option to allow you to set up your own partition arrangement. There is usually a drop down box with the types of partitions you can set up including /home.
johnd (85)
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