What should I do about my Windows partition?

The Orange Peanut · 2009-03-01 00:33:27

I'm interested in dual booting Arch with Windows, but I have run into a snag. I'm on a laptop with a recovery partition and a Windows partition taking up the rest of the space. I attempted to install Arch, but cfdisk doesn't allow for shrinking partitions or otherwise resizing them. I am downloading Ubuntu so I can boot the live cd and resize the partition (and create a new one for Arch) with gparted, but according to some websites I've googled, resizing the windows partition will make it unbootable without a Vista disk to repair the installation. You can see that the problem is that I don't have a Vista cd, just the recovery partition which cannot do a 'repair.' How do I circumvent this issue?

Normally I'd get rid of Windows completely, but I need Windows for work (which is basically why I bought this laptop to begin with.)

Inxsible · 2009-03-01 01:22:58

1) The Arch installer has a partitioner and you could just use that instead of using and wasting an Ubuntu cd.

2) If you feel comfortable using GUI partitioners only, then try the GParted Live CD instead of the Ubuntu one. Download is only 97MB or so.

3) Resize the Vista partion using its own partitioner. Its somewhere in the Control Panel. I have done this before multiple times and everything works.

4) What you are probably concerned about is GRUB which is a boot loader for Linux (LILO being yet another). If you install GRUB to the MBR (MAster Boot Record) then you won't be able to log into Vista unless you put an entry for Vista in the Grub. You have 2 choices in this case :
4a) Install GRUB to MBR and add an entry for Vista
4b) Install GRUB in the partition that you are installing Arch to.

Also see my post on your other thread about partition sizes and filesystems

Last edited by Inxsible (2009-03-01 01:31:32)

Fingel · 2009-03-01 01:28:56

After keeping my Windows partition around for months and not using it, I decided to nuke it. Now I boot XP in virtualbox when I need it, which isnt too often.

Ranguvar · 2009-03-01 02:06:33

To clarify further, cfdisk is the semi-graphical variant of fdisk, a very basic partitioner. It does not support resizing or anything fancy besides making and deleting partitions. For more, I suggest parted, or its graphical brother GParted. The former comes on the Arch Install CD, and the later can be found on many Live CDs, including GParted Live and SystemRescueCd (and you can install it with pacman on the Arch CD). They can resize almost any filesystem in almost any way, including Windows's NTFS. No need for Vista's partitioner - it would actually not work if you're trying to resize Vista's partition from within that very same Vista.

And, as Fingel said, I doubt you need Windows at all. Wine will run a large number of apps, usually at full speed (it's not an emulator, just a port of Windows libraries, etc. to Linux (basically)), and for those that don't work you can use a virtual machine. The only real case where you'd need a full Windows install is if you have a very demanding app that therefore you don't want to run in a virtual machine because you would lose some resources to the VM (I mean _very_ demanding RAM and CPU-wise), or if you want to run the latest games (Wine supports most older games, and VMs only have basic 3D support right now).

I've not heard or experienced any problems with resizing Windows partitions (though I thankfully do not have any experience with Vista), and I bet any could be easily fixed. The rumors might even be because some people still believe you can't resize partitons without deleting them and making new ones (people stuck with only Windows fdisk).

Last edited by Ranguvar (2009-03-01 02:12:40)

methuselah · 2009-03-01 02:10:23

The Orange Peanut wrote:

I'm interested in dual booting Arch with Windows, but I have run into a snag. I'm on a laptop with a recovery partition and a Windows partition taking up the rest of the space. I attempted to install Arch, but cfdisk doesn't allow for shrinking partitions or otherwise resizing them. I am downloading Ubuntu so I can boot the live cd and resize the partition (and create a new one for Arch) with gparted, but according to some websites I've googled, resizing the windows partition will make it unbootable without a Vista disk to repair the installation. You can see that the problem is that I don't have a Vista cd, just the recovery partition which cannot do a 'repair.' How do I circumvent this issue?
Normally I'd get rid of Windows completely, but I need Windows for work (which is basically why I bought this laptop to begin with.)

This is how I dual booted mine with Vista:

Use the Window's Vista partitioning tool to shrink your Vista partition down to a respectable size, creating a new "Free Space" for you to install Arch into. (leave the recovery partition alone) Also defrag Vista afterwards.

Now when you install with Arch, you will already have sda1 and sda2 used with your Vista and Recovery-Vista partitions. You will also have a "Free Space" to start installing the Arch partitions. Just follow the wiki guide from here.... and use an Extended/Logical partitioning scheme to fit everything.

I used sda3 to create my /boot partition (toggle sda3 to be bootable.... and also un-toggle Vista SO IT IS NOT a bootable partition)

Then I made sda4 into an Extended partition for the 4th partition.

Next I made the logical partition of sda5 for the SWAP

I finished by making the logical partition of sda6 for the / (root directory).

And just finish the install like normal, and also uncomment your grub to be able to boot into windows.

Last edited by methuselah (2009-03-01 02:19:56)

viga · 2009-03-01 02:40:37

Download Gparted it is a great tool. Easy to use too.

buttons · 2009-03-01 03:39:14

Kill it. With fire.

The Orange Peanut · 2009-03-01 05:13:49

Uh, fun. I booted up the Ubuntu CD to try to resize my partitions. When I tried to do it manually with gparted, it errored resizing the ntfs partition. I thought I might have done something wrong, so I fired up the Ubuntu installer and selected "resize my current partition." I thought I could install Ubuntu then just overwrite that partition with an Arch install. It errored as well, and when I went back into the installer the only option was "use entire disk" which obviously I don't want to do.

This is so stupid. It's no wonder people download pirated copies of Windows. If they had just given me a real installation disc, this would have not been a problem. Any ideas?

Inxsible · 2009-03-01 05:34:49

Ranguvar wrote:

No need for Vista's partitioner - it would actually not work if you're trying to resize Vista's partition from within that very same Vista.

Not quite. You can resize the Vista partition from Vista itself. I have done it multiple times.

mrunion · 2009-03-01 14:28:20

Same here -- just did it Thursday on a new machine. The new machine only had one partition for Vista (no restore partition or anything!), and I resized it from right within Vista -- no reboot required.

You go to the Volume Manager (or something similar) and tell it to resize the volume, pick a size and go.

Last edited by mrunion (2009-03-01 14:28:53)

R00KIE · 2009-03-01 15:53:56

Mind you that cfdisk does not make a mess out of partition ordering when creating everything from scratch as fdisk does and parted too I believe. This only matters if you plan to use some kind of partition editor like partition magic that will scream and complain partitions are not the in order that they appear on disk and will refuse to work until you let it sort it out (this seems to cause problem mostly with windows because with linux it seems to be all the same, someone that knows better please confirm or correct me).
Also backup all your data before using gparted, once it made a really big mess out of my partitions that scared me quite seriously (fortunately testdisk came to the rescue ) but if things go wrong you may not be as lucky as I was.

bgc1954 · 2009-03-01 16:36:46

If you'd like actual directions on resizing a Vista partition, I've used this guide before: http://www.vistarewired.com/2007/02/16/ … dows-vista

The Orange Peanut · 2009-03-01 21:31:55

Interestingly enough, my computer decided to blue screen before the OS loads this morning. It's already done something similar before (wouldn't start because of an update, I had to restore Vista then, too). I've had it for not even a week. I'm going to take it back to BestBuy tomorrow and get it exchanged. If another one does this, I'll get my money back and get another brand. I'm pretty angry actually.

Inxsible · 2009-03-01 21:39:49

The Orange Peanut wrote:

Interestingly enough, my computer decided to blue screen before the OS loads this morning. It's already done something similar before (wouldn't start because of an update, I had to restore Vista then, too). I've had it for not even a week. I'm going to take it back to BestBuy tomorrow and get it exchanged. If another one does this, I'll get my money back and get another brand. I'm pretty angry actually.

I hope that the warranty on your machine isn't voided because you messed around with the partitions. Some of the sellers use this to pass the buck. If you have in anyway changed the configuration that they sold you with, the warranty is void.

fukawi2 · 2009-03-01 21:47:09

Inxsible wrote:

Ranguvar wrote:
No need for Vista's partitioner - it would actually not work if you're trying to resize Vista's partition from within that very same Vista.
Not quite. You can resize the Vista partition from Vista itself. I have done it multiple times.

+1
Did it with my brand new laptop. The only thing that impressed me about Vista - it made it easier to install Linux!

The Orange Peanut · 2009-03-01 22:07:26

The partitions never changed. It was working last night (after I tried messing with them), but this morning it was blue screening. I shouldn't have a problem getting it replaced.

TomWitko · 2009-03-02 04:50:09

Hi some laptops do funky things with partitioning. I bought a Dell XPS a year ago and it was picky about things such as not wanting a main vista partition smaller than 40 gig and a few other things like little partitions for boot files and the dreaded media direct.

Might want to look into the make and model, I followed a xps guide online and everything worked even the dreaded "screw up your partitions" media direct worked properly.

Inxsible · 2009-03-02 05:32:55

TomWitko wrote:

Hi some laptops do funky things with partitioning. I bought a Dell XPS a year ago and it was picky about things such as not wanting a main vista partition smaller than 40 gig and a few other things like little partitions for boot files and the dreaded media direct.
Might want to look into the make and model, I followed a xps guide online and everything worked even the dreaded "screw up your partitions" media direct worked properly.

Thats funny, coz I found that Vista would not let me shrink its partition more than 26GB -- even though it had free space in it -- or so said, Vista's own disk logs.

R00KIE · 2009-03-02 09:35:49

Well .... notebooks with vista. boot it once to check if everything is ok then resize the partitions the most you can and dd them to an external hard disk (you never know if down along the road you are going to need them or not, better be safe than sorry). Afterwards get rid of the recovery partition and the main vista partition with fire and explosives if you need to then install Arch and all will be well again .

toad · 2009-03-02 09:42:44

New notebooks with windows? Demand your windows tax back! Then install a reliable OS of your choice. Do not under any circumstances accept M$' EULA...

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-01 00:33:27

What should I do about my Windows partition?

#2 2009-03-01 01:22:58

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#3 2009-03-01 01:28:56

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#4 2009-03-01 02:06:33

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#5 2009-03-01 02:10:23

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#6 2009-03-01 02:40:37

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#7 2009-03-01 03:39:14

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#8 2009-03-01 05:13:49

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#9 2009-03-01 05:34:49

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#10 2009-03-01 14:28:20

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#11 2009-03-01 15:53:56

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#12 2009-03-01 16:36:46

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#13 2009-03-01 21:31:55

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#14 2009-03-01 21:39:49

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#15 2009-03-01 21:47:09

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#16 2009-03-01 22:07:26

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#17 2009-03-02 04:50:09

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#18 2009-03-02 05:32:55

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#19 2009-03-02 09:35:49

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

#20 2009-03-02 09:42:44

Re: What should I do about my Windows partition?

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