Install openSUSE alongside Win7/Vista - A Guide

The first thing you must know is this: Every Windows install is different.

And now you also need to think about Do I have UEFI BIOS


Before you proceed with an installation or before we advise you at all. We need a detailed list of your partitions. But you cannot provide that from Windows. Here is how to proceed.

Providing a List of your Partitions:
In Parted Magic open the RoxTerm and type:
Then open the Partition Editor and show us a screen/s of your HD/s and Partitions
Eg here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Win-Install/fdisk of win.jpeg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Win-Install/gparted of win.jpeg

That's all we need at first. So start a thread and post that information.
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This thread will now continue to illustrate how we might proceed given the partition layout shown above.
Please note: This is for illustration only and that the partition sizes should be ignored. In a real case, the partitions would be much bigger.

What the Partitions Might Mean
If you have 4 Primary partitions, which is quite possible. What might they be. The image here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Win-Install/gparted of win.jpeg explains the possibilities. But as said, every install is different.
I'm going to choose to delete the Vendor Partition sda4, resize sda3 and create Linux Partitions in the free space. Download this Eg Video
Eg: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Win-Install/Partitioning example win7-linux.mpeg

I end up with:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Win...rtitioned.jpeg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Win...ned-fdisk.jpeg

For installation I usually put the boot flag on the extended, but the installer will do it for you if you don't. In some cases this might not be necessary. But in this case it's fine. Here is how:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Win...nage-flag.jpeg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Win...boot-flag.jpeg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/Win.../bootflag.jpeg

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To see some install examples go here:
Picasa Web Albums - carl fletcher - 11.3 Slideshow
Picasa Web Albums - carl fletcher - openSUSE 11.2...

And
SDB:All about GRUB - openSUSE