1 TB hdd and no space to create a partition for arch !

rangalo · 2010-04-02 11:55:41

I have a brand new Acer aspire 5811 with core i5 processor and all that.

There is windows 7 Home Premium pre-installed on it. I want to install arch and setup a dual boot system.

The problem is:

Windows shows 4 partitions

1. 14 MB UNKNOWN recovery partition
2. 100MB NTFS System Reserved partition for Windows 7
3. 448GB NTFS Windows 7 system partition
4. 468GB NTFS Data partition for windows 7

But GpartedLive cd and also arch setup show 5 partitions

1. 938Kb UNKOWN system reserved partition
2. 14 MB UNKNOWN recovery partition
3. 100MB NTFS System Reserved partition for Windows 7
4. 448GB NTFS Windows 7 system partition
5. 468GB unusable space

Because of this, I cannot create another primary partition.

Can any body guide me about how should I go for creating partition for installing arch ?

EDIT: I need to keep windows 7 working.

regards,
Hardik

Last edited by rangalo (2010-04-02 11:57:21)

barzam · 2010-04-02 11:59:11

You need to remove at least one primary pratition and create an extended pratition, which serves as a container for more partitions.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide#Partition_Hard_Drives

rangalo · 2010-04-02 12:26:34

barzam, I agree. The only question is which one to remove ?

I have following choices:

1. 938Kb UNKOWN system reserved partition
2. 14 MB UNKNOWN recovery partition
3. 100MB NTFS System Reserved partition for Windows 7

None of them can be removed from windows. I don't know which one is safe to remove.

barzam · 2010-04-02 12:30:34

What about this one:
4. 468GB NTFS Data partition for windows 7

rangalo · 2010-04-02 12:33:17

This was the initial idea. But as you can see in my first post, it is not even recognized in linux. Linux counts 4 primary partition without this data partition. Windows on the other hand counts 4 partitions including this one.

EDIT: I also wonder how this can be possible. In windows, I can create even another partition after shrinking this data partition .

Last edited by rangalo (2010-04-02 12:35:11)

falconindy · 2010-04-02 16:59:16

I suspect Windows wrote the disk with a GUID partition table. GParted's support for GPT appears to be shaky at best, right now. That's why you can't see past the 4th partition correctly.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-04-02 11:55:41

1 TB hdd and no space to create a partition for arch !

#2 2010-04-02 11:59:11

Re: 1 TB hdd and no space to create a partition for arch !

#3 2010-04-02 12:26:34

Re: 1 TB hdd and no space to create a partition for arch !

#4 2010-04-02 12:30:34

Re: 1 TB hdd and no space to create a partition for arch !

#5 2010-04-02 12:33:17

Re: 1 TB hdd and no space to create a partition for arch !

#6 2010-04-02 16:59:16

Re: 1 TB hdd and no space to create a partition for arch !

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