Partition question

[KingX]

Hey Guys,

I have a 160gb Seagate HD, that I divided into 2 partitions. I installed WinXP Pro on one partition and had been using the other for storage purposes. Now I plan on installing SuSe 10.1 on the partition which I was using for storage purposes. What I want to do is create a 10gb partition for SuSe and leave the rest alone. Just wanted to clarify if SuSe has adequate tools for doing the job, or if I need to grab some other tool and create the partition before hand? Also I am assuming that SuSe will sorta detect WinXP and give me the option to dual boot. Any help appreciated, thanks in advance.


KingX

[machine6]

I had windows and a 2nd storage partition already on my drive and during the install Suse it divided up the partition nicely and installed the grub boot loader making the system dual bootable.

Also I still have access to the files on the NTFS partition in my opinion it handles things very well

[devils casper]

Hi !!

if you resize second partition during SuSe installation, then there are a lot of chances for data loss.... Use GParted to resize partition....
create new partition and dont format it..... during installation, select "Unpartitioned/free space" for Install..... you will get dual boot... its default in most of Linux distros including SuSe....



.... casper ....

[KingX]

Well... I am not worried about losing data on the storage partition as I have already backed that up. Just don't want to hurt my WinXP partition.

[devils casper]

Hi !!


during SuSe installation, it will be very confusing to resize partitions.......
resize and create partition through windows....... Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management --> Disk Management



.... casper ....

[tomeriker]

devils casper:
was just hoping you could explain a little better on how you resize, create, or delete a partition in windows. I have never been able to do this, so if you can do it inside windows without Partition majic, etc., I would really like to know how.

thanks

[devils casper]

Hi !!

was just hoping you could explain a little better on how you resize, create, or delete a partition in windows. I have never been able to do this, so if you can do it inside windows without Partition majic, etc., I would really like to know how.

there is nothing much to explain.... in windows XP... follow this path...
Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management --> Disk Management

Disk Management window list all the partitions... including Linux Partitions ( as unknown ). right click on partition and select any option you want..........



.... casper ....

[bigfilsing]

Here's what i did.
Maybe not the right way round but here goes.
I started with 2 partitions both being used by windows. So ( in windows) i transferred all data to the first partition ( where XP resided and the active partion). Then i booted using the WIN xp set up disk. The first part of the win install is the latest version of FDISK. Not only does this ask you if you want to install another copy of windows ( why the hell would you) but also allows for the deletion and/ or creation of partitions.
So i deleted the partition where my had been ( extended partiion). So now all i had was the original primary partition with windows on it and ther rest of the disk unpartitioned 80 gig. I decided to give Windows 20 gig for data and leave 60 for Linux. Created an extended partion 20 gig in size ( i would later format this in windows itself). I left the remainder of the space unformatted.
Exited the program and booted with Suse 10.1.
It created all the Linux partitions for me and a dual boot system. All works a treat.
The next time i booted to WIN XP i just formatted the the 20 gig partition and all was well.
Maybe not the best method but it works. And is easier for those of us with little linux experience and a bit of XP install experience.
If you really get stuck and want a step by step let me know.

Good luck

[devils casper]

Hi bigfilsing !!!

this is good solution for machine having two Operating Systems only... you can't install third OS in this type of configuration..........



.... casper ....

[KingX]

Ok guys.. I sorta figured this out thanks to your replies. To create a partition I had to use windows to do it, since SuSe couldn't do anything with the partition other then remove it all together or take up the whole partition. So I used a partition maker software to divide my partition in 2 and then install SuSe on that one.

The other method would have been what bigfilsing suggested of using the windows installation in creating the partition. That one seemed a bit long and painful :P.

Devils_Casper I didn't find any options in disk management of resizing or creating a new partition.