Windows 7 & openSuSe 11.2 installation suggestion wanted...

[ITMountains]

Hi i'm playing with Linux since 1 week. Finally i lost all my data from the hard disk while trying to make good partiation and dual boot with windows 7. Not a great trouble because i've already backed up some important files in DVD. anyway...

Now i've just wiped full disk uking KillDisk utility. Now i wanto install fresh Windows 7 and openSuSe 11.2. I'm going to install in Dell Inspiron 6400 Laptop. Hard Disk size is 120GB. I've searched a lot in google but very confusing. I'm installing for only personal perpose i mean not as a server. I'm looking for the answer of the following questions.

I want 80GB for windows and 40GB for openSuse.
4 Partiation for Windows (System, Desktop, Backup, Web)
I don't have clear idea about partiation size in linux (swap, /(root), /usr, /home, /tmp, /var)

1. I'm planning to install Win 7 first. Is that ok? Please suggest me which OS to install first?
2. How to put free space for linux? My way is i shrink the volume in win 7 and don't format and that is used by linux.
3. I have 1 GB ram so i'll use 1GB as SWAP and please suggest me for other partiation for linux.

4. Does shrinking windows based volumn after installing both OS create big problem? This happened today for me. Actually i don't know the exact reason.

Thanks...

Please i want many suggestion for a good conclusion...

[yancek]

You should install windows 7 first. When that is complete, you should use the windows 7 tool to shrink its partition to 80GB. Then use your Linux CD/DVD to install whichever distribution of Linux you want. During this process, a partitioning scheme will be suggested. Often you will need to select Advanced, Manual or Expert installation to enable you to choose partitions and to format them. The simplest partition scheme for someone new is to just create the root partition but you could also create a separate /home partition for data files.

[techieMoe]

...or you could not worry about the partitions at all and once you've cleared out the free space from the end of the Windows partition, leave it unpartitioned. Most modern Linux installers give you the option to Use existing free space, which takes care of the sizing and arrangement of your partitions automatically.

[linuxforever]

That's true, normally the suse installer takes care of those things.
And before actual installation suggests what should be done.
You can still change things as you want.

If you want to shrink windows partitions you should use for instance partition magic.
But you have to use it when windows is running.
So it is possible that the windows partition gets damaged.
You can boot with a partition magic boot-floppy, but if the cd boots I don't know.

Anyway a more proper way is to use a parted magic cd where you have to boot on.
And then you can resize, shrink, expand, make and delete partitions.
It supports all imaginable file systems.

Normally you make one partition of say 80GB, and install windows on it.
Next you you install linux on the empty space left.
And linux takes care that all other linux partitions are correctly made.
But you can also use a (windows) partition which will be formated in the linux file system.

[oz]

Welcome to the forums, ITMountains!

Parted Magic as suggested above is a great little liveCD that you can use for all your partitioning chores should you wish to get them all setup before you begin your Linux installation:

Parted Magic LiveCD

I personally prefer it over any of the Windows partitioning tools.

Hope it all goes well for you.

[ITMountains]

Thanks for the valuable suggestions. I've successfully installed Both Windows 7 and openSuSe 11.2.

First i install Windows 7 with 20 GB partiation and left all remaining for free. After Installing Windows 7 i install OpenSuSe and make partiation as follows..
system - 20 gb (Primary)
/boot - 200MB (primary)
desktop - FAT32 - 20GB (extended)
backup - FAT32 - 20GB(extended)
web - FAT32 - 10GB(extended)
/ - Ext4 - 6GB(extended)
Swap - Swap - 1GB(extended)
/home -Ext4 - 15 GB(extended)
/usr -Ext4 - 8 GB(extended)
/var -Ext4 - 2 GB(extended)
/temp - Ext4 - 1GB(extended)

there is still free space i'll play with it later... In future i'll use this laptop as hosting for a testing site of mine. please suggest whether i've done right or wrong. i'm just like a baby in Linux.

[techieMoe]

Thanks for the valuable suggestions. I've successfully installed Both Windows 7 and openSuSe 11.2.

First i install Windows 7 with 20 GB partiation and left all remaining for free. After Installing Windows 7 i install OpenSuSe and make partiation as follows..
system - 20 gb (Primary)
/boot - 200MB (primary)
desktop - FAT32 - 20GB (extended)
backup - FAT32 - 20GB(extended)
web - FAT32 - 10GB(extended)
/ - Ext4 - 6GB(extended)
Swap - Swap - 1GB(extended)
/home -Ext4 - 15 GB(extended)
/usr -Ext4 - 8 GB(extended)
/var -Ext4 - 2 GB(extended)
/temp - Ext4 - 1GB(extended)

there is still free space i'll play with it later... In future i'll use this laptop as hosting for a testing site of mine. please suggest whether i've done right or wrong. i'm just like a baby in Linux.

You're awfully granular in your partitions. Linux really only needs 1 (maybe 2) partitions, 3 if you're just a control freak. The root (/) and swap partitions are standard (though swap is not required), and you might possibly want a separate /home partition, but the rest of that is completely unnecessary.

Also, why the FAT32 partitions? You can share data between Windows (NTFS) and Linux (ext3/4/reiserfs) filesystems without needing a FAT32 go-between these days.

[djobbito]

You're awfully granular in your partitions. Linux really only needs 1 (maybe 2) partitions, 3 if you're just a control freak. The root (/) and swap partitions are standard (though swap is not required), and you might possibly want a separate /home partition, but the rest of that is completely unnecessary.

Also, why the FAT32 partitions? You can share data between Windows (NTFS) and Linux (ext3/4/reiserfs) filesystems without needing a FAT32 go-between these days.

He, actually techniMoe is right. You don't need all the /var and whatsoever, these are only useful for servers.
What you only need, for Desktop, is the root "/", swap and home "/home" partitions, that's it.

The home partition is useful when your system crash and you might not know how to get your solution, so you would just do a fresh re-installation in the future. All your documents and personal files will be still there.
Think wisely.

[Sandlizard]

...or you could not worry about the partitions at all and once you've cleared out the free space from the end of the Windows partition, leave it unpartitioned. Most modern Linux installers give you the option to Use existing free space, which takes care of the sizing and arrangement of your partitions automatically.

I totally agree, the easiest and most headache free is to shrink your Win partition and delete all partitions after the win partition and leave them unformated.
Your linux distro will ask you where to install, you pick the unpatitioned space, and it will set up your files and install LInux and grub, find your windows install and you're done, except for any driver issues etc that might pop up. Hard to predict those but your distro is a good one for having drivers for most common hardware.

[Bobber47]

Yeah, your scheme seems overly complicated. root, home, swap is plenty for a typical Linux user's system.

FAT32 is an old and functionally limited file system too, so I'd avoid it unless absolutely necessary (?). You'll have no access right controls (any user of either system will be able to read all content there) and file sizes will be 2 GB max, which is a problem if you do much with video.