I've acquired a computer with a 40 gig hard drive with one NTFS partition and XP installed. Can I somehow repartition it to reduce the XP partition to a minimum using the F-10 live cd? Or should I forget that and install an additional drive for F-10?
Bob
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 14:10 -0500, Bob Goodwin wrote:
I've acquired a computer with a 40 gig hard drive with one NTFS partition and XP installed. Can I somehow repartition it to reduce the XP partition to a minimum using the F-10 live cd? Or should I forget that and install an additional drive for F-10?
---- 40 Gb is not very large. I wouldn't suggest that you have XP with too much less than 20 Gb but the installer can indeed shrink the NTFS partition on the fly during installation and use the space made available for Linux.
I would suggest that you use the Windows tools to 'defragment' the XP installation first unless that is a fairly clean, unused XP installation.
Craig
Craig White wrote:
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 14:10 -0500, Bob Goodwin wrote:
I've acquired a computer with a 40 gig hard drive with one NTFS partition and XP installed. Can I somehow repartition it to reduce the XP partition to a minimum using the F-10 live cd? Or should I forget that and install an additional drive for F-10?
40 Gb is not very large. I wouldn't suggest that you have XP with too much less than 20 Gb but the installer can indeed shrink the NTFS partition on the fly during installation and use the space made available for Linux.
I would suggest that you use the Windows tools to 'defragment' the XP installation first unless that is a fairly clean, unused XP installation.
Craig
Yes, I already ran the "defrag" on Xp and it found nothing to do as I expected since it is a new install on a used box. I have no use for Windows but I keep throwing Windows installations away and it seemed like I ought to keep one. It also came with an re-installation cd which I assume would permit me to rescue the windows install if I hose it, should I want to.
I was thinking more like 10 gigs for Windows. It doesn't occupy but a small part of the drive now and I don't plan on using it for anything ...
I didn't realize the Fedora installer could re-size the Windows partition but I will have a try at it.
Thanks.
Bob
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 11:10 AM, Bob Goodwin bobgoodwin@wildblue.net wrote:
I've acquired a computer with a 40 gig hard drive with one NTFS partition and XP installed. Can I somehow repartition it to reduce the XP partition to a minimum using the F-10 live cd? Or should I forget that and install an additional drive for F-10?
Bob
If you've already installed XP, use Gparted from the Live CD to resize the XP partition and make space for the F10 install.
~af
Aldo Foot wrote:
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 11:10 AM, Bob Goodwin bobgoodwin@wildblue.net wrote:
I've acquired a computer with a 40 gig hard drive with one NTFS partition and XP installed. Can I somehow repartition it to reduce the XP partition to a minimum using the F-10 live cd? Or should I forget that and install an additional drive for F-10?
Bob
If you've already installed XP, use Gparted from the Live CD to resize the XP partition and make space for the F10 install.
~af
The installer acts like it is going to re-size the Windows partition if I just click on "Write changes to disk?" I just got to that point when I received your message.
I'm tempted to let it do it!
Bob
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 12:09 PM, Bob Goodwin bobgoodwin@wildblue.net wrote:
Aldo Foot wrote:
If you've already installed XP, use Gparted from the Live CD to resize the XP partition and make space for the F10 install.
~af
The installer acts like it is going to re-size the Windows partition if I just click on "Write changes to disk?" I just got to that point when I received your message.
I'm tempted to let it do it!
Bob
The action "Write changes to disk?" is not resizing the partition. It's either going to take all of it or use available remaining disk space. I may be wrong, but I think there's an option to install Fedora on the remaining free space of the disk (with Win already installed).
If you don't mind spending another hour installing Win... let it go. If you don't want to take chances, get the Live CD and it will be easier. ~af
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 14:48 -0500, Bob Goodwin wrote:
Craig White wrote:
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 14:10 -0500, Bob Goodwin wrote:
I've acquired a computer with a 40 gig hard drive with one NTFS partition and XP installed. Can I somehow repartition it to reduce the XP partition to a minimum using the F-10 live cd? Or should I forget that and install an additional drive for F-10?
40 Gb is not very large. I wouldn't suggest that you have XP with too much less than 20 Gb but the installer can indeed shrink the NTFS partition on the fly during installation and use the space made available for Linux.
I would suggest that you use the Windows tools to 'defragment' the XP installation first unless that is a fairly clean, unused XP installation.
Craig
Yes, I already ran the "defrag" on Xp and it found nothing to do as I expected since it is a new install on a used box. I have no use for Windows but I keep throwing Windows installations away and it seemed like I ought to keep one. It also came with an re-installation cd which I assume would permit me to rescue the windows install if I hose it, should I want to.
I was thinking more like 10 gigs for Windows. It doesn't occupy but a small part of the drive now and I don't plan on using it for anything ...
I didn't realize the Fedora installer could re-size the Windows partition but I will have a try at it.
---- 10 is too small...suggest at least 12. My new Acer Aspire One with WinXP SP3, OpenOffice 3, AVG Free Anti-Virus, Acrobat Reader, Flash, Firefox, Thunderbird, iTunes (no data) is just a hair under 10 Gb so I doubt you will have much space left.
Craig
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 15:09 -0500, Bob Goodwin wrote:
Aldo Foot wrote:
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 11:10 AM, Bob Goodwin bobgoodwin@wildblue.net wrote:
I've acquired a computer with a 40 gig hard drive with one NTFS partition and XP installed. Can I somehow repartition it to reduce the XP partition to a minimum using the F-10 live cd? Or should I forget that and install an additional drive for F-10?
Bob
If you've already installed XP, use Gparted from the Live CD to resize the XP partition and make space for the F10 install.
~af
The installer acts like it is going to re-size the Windows partition if I just click on "Write changes to disk?" I just got to that point when I received your message.
I'm tempted to let it do it!
---- It does work - I have seen it for myself - as per other e-mail, I think 10 Gb is just a little too small for Windows.
Craig
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 12:20 -0800, Aldo Foot wrote:
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 12:09 PM, Bob Goodwin bobgoodwin@wildblue.net wrote:
Aldo Foot wrote:
If you've already installed XP, use Gparted from the Live CD to resize the XP partition and make space for the F10 install.
~af
The installer acts like it is going to re-size the Windows partition if I just click on "Write changes to disk?" I just got to that point when I received your message.
I'm tempted to let it do it!
Bob
The action "Write changes to disk?" is not resizing the partition. It's either going to take all of it or use available remaining disk space. I may be wrong, but I think there's an option to install Fedora on the remaining free space of the disk (with Win already installed).
If you don't mind spending another hour installing Win... let it go. If you don't want to take chances, get the Live CD and it will be easier.
---- No Aldo - resizing ntfs, ext2 or ext3 partition is indeed an installation option. It's in the installation guide...
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/f10/en_US/sn-disk-druid.html
and it works, I know because I have used it.
Craig
Aldo Foot wrote:
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 12:09 PM, Bob Goodwin bobgoodwin@wildblue.net wrote:
Aldo Foot wrote:
If you've already installed XP, use Gparted from the Live CD to resize the XP partition and make space for the F10 install.
~af
The installer acts like it is going to re-size the Windows partition if I just click on "Write changes to disk?" I just got to that point when I received your message.
I'm tempted to let it do it!
Bob
The action "Write changes to disk?" is not resizing the partition. It's either going to take all of it or use available remaining disk space. I may be wrong, but I think there's an option to install Fedora on the remaining free space of the disk (with Win already installed).
If you don't mind spending another hour installing Win... let it go. If you don't want to take chances, get the Live CD and it will be easier. ~af
I dropped the keyboard on the floor and everything froze! Just got back to where I was.
It says "Any date on deleted or reformatted partitions will be lost. I think I told it to leave the Windows part alone. I'm going to try it and see what happens ... It's not life or death so I'll just suffer the consequences if it's a bad choice.
Bob
Craig White wrote:
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 12:20 -0800, Aldo Foot wrote:
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 12:09 PM, Bob Goodwin bobgoodwin@wildblue.net wrote:
Aldo Foot wrote:
If you've already installed XP, use Gparted from the Live CD to resize the XP partition and make space for the F10 install.
~af
The installer acts like it is going to re-size the Windows partition if I just click on "Write changes to disk?" I just got to that point when I received your message.
I'm tempted to let it do it!
Bob
The action "Write changes to disk?" is not resizing the partition. It's either going to take all of it or use available remaining disk space. I may be wrong, but I think there's an option to install Fedora on the remaining free space of the disk (with Win already installed).
If you don't mind spending another hour installing Win... let it go. If you don't want to take chances, get the Live CD and it will be easier.
No Aldo - resizing ntfs, ext2 or ext3 partition is indeed an installation option. It's in the installation guide...
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/f10/en_US/sn-disk-druid.html
and it works, I know because I have used it.
Crai
It appears to have worked except that I got the proportions backward and gave the smaller partition to Linux! But I can boot either F-10 or Windows. But that worked without a hitch otherwise. Next I will install another hard drive it appears equipped for both SATA and PATA so I can use a 250 gig PATA drive I have in addition to the 40 g SATA.
Then to instal XFCE and embark on the configuration effort, that's usually good for a week of spare time.
Thank you both for your help.
Bob
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 12:35 PM, Craig White craigwhite@azapple.com wrote:
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 12:20 -0800, Aldo Foot wrote:
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 12:09 PM, Bob Goodwin bobgoodwin@wildblue.net wrote:
Aldo Foot wrote:
If you've already installed XP, use Gparted from the Live CD to resize the XP partition and make space for the F10 install.
~af
The installer acts like it is going to re-size the Windows partition if I just click on "Write changes to disk?" I just got to that point when I received your message.
I'm tempted to let it do it!
Bob
The action "Write changes to disk?" is not resizing the partition. It's either going to take all of it or use available remaining disk space. I may be wrong, but I think there's an option to install Fedora on the remaining free space of the disk (with Win already installed).
If you don't mind spending another hour installing Win... let it go. If you don't want to take chances, get the Live CD and it will be easier.
No Aldo - resizing ntfs, ext2 or ext3 partition is indeed an installation option. It's in the installation guide...
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/f10/en_US/sn-disk-druid.html
and it works, I know because I have used it.
Craig
Yes, it does work. I tried it myself.
I've never used disk druid's option to resize ntfs partitions previously. I always choose to do custom layouts, but having the resize option it's a plus. Thanks for the tip.
~af
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 01:27:34PM -0700, Craig White wrote:
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 14:48 -0500, Bob Goodwin wrote:
Craig White wrote:
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 14:10 -0500, Bob Goodwin wrote:
I've acquired a computer with a 40 gig hard drive with one NTFS partition and XP installed. Can I somehow repartition it to reduce the XP partition to a minimum using the F-10 live cd? Or should I forget that and install an additional drive for F-10?
40 Gb is not very large. I wouldn't suggest that you have XP with too much less than 20 Gb but the installer can indeed shrink the NTFS partition on the fly during installation and use the space made available for Linux.
I would suggest that you use the Windows tools to 'defragment' the XP installation first unless that is a fairly clean, unused XP installation.
Craig
Yes, I already ran the "defrag" on Xp and it found nothing to do as I expected since it is a new install on a used box. I have no use for Windows but I keep throwing Windows installations away and it seemed like I ought to keep one. It also came with an re-installation cd which I assume would permit me to rescue the windows install if I hose it, should I want to.
I was thinking more like 10 gigs for Windows. It doesn't occupy but a small part of the drive now and I don't plan on using it for anything ...
I didn't realize the Fedora installer could re-size the Windows partition but I will have a try at it.
10 is too small...suggest at least 12. My new Acer Aspire One with WinXP SP3, OpenOffice 3, AVG Free Anti-Virus, Acrobat Reader, Flash, Firefox, Thunderbird, iTunes (no data) is just a hair under 10 Gb so I doubt you will have much space left.
Given the price of disks and disk size upgrades leave the windows disk for windows and dedicate a disk for linux.
On windows laptops I have started buying a 'monster' disk to replace the vendor disk. Simple backup tools let me backup windows and reinstall it in the front of the new disk.
I have kept the old disk to include with warranty repair returns, bios updates and other. i.e. the price of a 300GB disk is about the price of XP... and sadly resume services and hiring managers like windows tools to the exclusion of other tools. I was once told to send my reports as .txt files... All that was missing was the .txt at the end of the file. A text file without .txt was not a text file to that individual. And now that apple has backed off the DRM a enough I have become a fan of iTunes and keep a windows partition for it alone.
-
Aldo Foot -
Bob Goodwin -
Craig White -
Nifty Fedora Mitch