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it seems ever since i've installed ubuntu i've been needing to change all my partitions on my drives so they'll work properly with linux, but now i'm trying to install ...
  1. 03-07-2006 #1
    el_ricardo
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    problems with partitioning my hard drive correctly

    it seems ever since i've installed ubuntu i've been needing to change all my partitions on my drives so they'll work properly with linux, but now i'm trying to install windows so i can have a dual boot system, because it seems that although linux does everything i need it to at the moment, it can't run certain things as well as i'd like it to (ie windows programs through wine) but anyway, the windows installer is asking me to put a small partition at the end of my primary disk (/dev/sda in linux terms) because i'm installing to a different hard drive (/dev/hdb) it won't let me do it in the windows installer, so i figured i'd just have to do it in linux with fdisk or cfdisk, but for some reason when i try to resize the partition linux is installed on so i can put a new partition at the end of the disk, it won't let me, i'm told there are no free sectors available, what does this mean? and how do i get around it? i don't want to jeapordise my linux install especially now because i have everything working the way i want it!
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  2. 03-08-2006 #2
    jjr2527
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    I'm pretty new to linux but I think the problem is that windows needs to be installed on a fat32 drive. Linux formats the drive in a different format so windows installer recognizes the drive as full. If you have 2 hard drives in Ubuntu go to System-->Adiministration--> Disks and click on the drive that you want to install windows on. On the partitions tab check how the drive is formatted. It might need to be formatted as Fat32.

    The other possibility is when you installed Ubuntu you choose to treat both drives as one partition. You would want to only include 1 drive in the partition. I would do this with a reinstall but someone else might have a better soloution/idea on the problem.
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  3. 03-08-2006 #3
    junkman4547
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    Not sure if this apply to your situation. I have two hard drive attached to IDE0 channel, one has Debian/FreeBSD ant the other has XP. I installed each harddrive OS seperately. When I want to boot XP I just go into BIOS and instruct it to switch hard drive boot priority from Debian/FreeBSD to one with XP. This has been working perfectly for me.
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  4. 03-08-2006 #4
    el_ricardo
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    thats not a bad idea, so what your saying is i could just remove the linux hard drive, install windows on the other hard drive, and then put the linux one back in? would this screw windows up when i come to put the linux hard drive back in do you think? although windows can't even read it anyway because its in EXT ....
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  5. 03-08-2006 #5
    junkman4547
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    Yep, that's what I did and it hasn't screwed anything up. One thing I must tell you though, Debian has to be the ....Master, XP doesn't seem to care if it's the slave or master.
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  6. 03-09-2006 #6
    justin whitaker
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    Quote Originally Posted by el_ricardo
    thats not a bad idea, so what your saying is i could just remove the linux hard drive, install windows on the other hard drive, and then put the linux one back in? would this screw windows up when i come to put the linux hard drive back in do you think? although windows can't even read it anyway because its in EXT ....
    Actually, this is what I do. Linux (actually multiboot of several flavors + BSD) are on one 100gb drive, and XP is on it's own seperate drive. Both are in the box, so all I have to do is switch ribbons and hit the power button.

    I prefer this seperation to ensure that my gaming and other files don't get shanked by something random later on.

    XP doesn't care which drive it is on, but it has to be in the first partition on any HD (ok-not strictly true, it can be fooled to booting from other partitions, but that's advanced OS 202.).
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  7. 03-11-2006 #7
    TheBigPhish
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    Quote Originally Posted by justin whitaker
    Actually, this is what I do. Linux (actually multiboot of several flavors + BSD) are on one 100gb drive, and XP is on it's own seperate drive. Both are in the box, so all I have to do is switch ribbons and hit the power button.

    I prefer this seperation to ensure that my gaming and other files don't get shanked by something random later on.

    XP doesn't care which drive it is on, but it has to be in the first partition on any HD (ok-not strictly true, it can be fooled to booting from other partitions, but that's advanced OS 202.).
    such as the repeated connect / disconnect of the ribbon cable connectors, or the ever present possibility of a static discharge onto one of those lovely gold coated pins? What happens if you shear a pin off? Or zap the innards?

    Hmmm

    (yeah, much better)

    Not cool.

    Why not just swap the boot partition defaults in BIOS? No plugging!

    or tell your bios to boot from DISK 1 (with GRUB for sets for both OS's) instead of DISK 0 (and put XP on disk ) so that you can always revert back to it if it gets borked.

    Think about what you are doing, you are taking a delicate and sensitive connection and repeatedly using it over and over again.
    Chicks dig giant mechanized war machines
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  8. 03-11-2006 #8
    farslayer
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    Why not just install windows on the other drive, then re-install grub on the MBR of the first drive. grub will see the windows install and add it to the boot menu automatically..
    far...out
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  9. 03-12-2006 #9
    junkman4547
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    Red face

    Quote Originally Posted by farslayer
    Why not just install windows on the other drive, then re-install grub on the MBR of the first drive. grub will see the windows install and add it to the boot menu automatically..
    This is by far the most sensible alternative.

    Though at the time when I have to use XP, I was in a hurry and really didn't have time to look for GRUB...
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