Hello, I’ve installed opensuse some days ago, but I realized that I made some wrong choices on the partition system, i have a SSD, and I want to put all the boot stuff on it (combined with an EFI system, the boot is very fast this way). Can I change it now, or I must reinstall the whole SO to do it?
We really cannot tell without more information.
Please post the output from
# parted -l
Use CODE tags (click the “#” symbol in the edit window to generate them).
That will tell us your current partitioning.
parted -l
Model: ATA ST1000LM024 HN-M (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 524GB 524GB ntfs
2 524GB 524GB 171MB fat16 primary boot
3 524GB 527GB 2156MB linux-swap(v1) primary
4 527GB 548GB 21.5GB ext4 primary
5 548GB 1000GB 452GB ext4 primary
Model: ATA MZMPC032HBCD-000 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 32.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 6000MB 5999MB fat32 boot
And telling which version of openSUSE you use will help people to concentrate their answers on that same level.
Hi!
How did you manage to get a partition table of type ‘gpt’ on both devices?
And what version is your windows?
From the kind of partitions present, I would guess it is XP, at least not windows 7 or 8.
On which partition is your windows ‘C:’ ?
Good luck
Mike
One more question:
could it be that you have windows 7 or 8 ?
Your partition setup is weird!
Is /dev/sda2 on ATA ST1000LM024 HN-M your ‘Microsoft Reserved System Partition’ ?
Or is it the EFI boot partition ?
Usually one would expect that these would be the first partitions on the drive !
Sorry for posting so few info
How did you manage to get a partition table of type ‘gpt’ on both devices?
And what version is your windows?
From the kind of partitions present, I would guess it is XP, at least not windows 7 or 8.
On which partition is your windows ‘C:’ ?
I used gparted to change all partition tables to GPT before installing any SO, from a liveCD. C is located on partition 1, the NTFS one. The boot stuff from windows is located on the SSD, and I want to put the boot files from opensuse here too. My windows is 8.1, what makes you think that i am using XP? My open suse is openSUSE 13.1 (Bottle) (x86_64) 64-bit GNOME 3.10.2.
That’s not a particular problem. On a UEFI system, that’s expected. I’m guessing that “/dev/sdb” is the SSD.
And what version is your windows?
From the kind of partitions present, I would guess it is XP, at least not windows 7 or 8.
I have Vista on a single partition. I did not come that way. But, at the time I bought that computer, I zapper the entire disk and repartitioned it to my liking. And then I reinstalled Vista with the provided media (that was back when they provided install media). So he possibly installed Windows himself.
On which partition is your windows ‘C:’ ?
Yes, it would be useful to know what partition is used for what. We can guess the linux, but it’s not as clear for the WIndows.
Assuming that “/dev/sdb” is the SSD, then I would guess that the best move would be to put the opensuse root partition there (rather than the boot partition). That will give more of a speed up.
Assuming that “/dev/sdb” is the SSD, then I would guess that the best move would be to put the opensuse root partition there (rather than the boot partition). That will give more of a speed up.
the problem is that the SSD is only 32GB. Is it enough? The root does not include /home, right? Because since i plan to mainly use opensuse, I will probably spend much more than 32GB with personal files
One more question:
could it be that you have windows 7 or 8 ?
Your partition setup is weird!
Is /dev/sda2 on ATA ST1000LM024 HN-M your ‘Microsoft Reserved System Partition’ ?
Or is it the EFI boot partition ?
Usually one would expect that these would be the first partitions on the drive !
I got the impression that i’ve done something wrong… Anyway, my plan was to use the SSD to accelerate the system, so, what I did was: installed opensuse, but it was almost automatic, i didnt selected partitions or anything, the installer did it to me, and that was my mistake (but before that I have created a NTFS partition to install win 8). After that, i installed windows. The windows boot manager is on the SSD, to get a faster boot time. On /dev/sda2 is the boot of opensuse, on EFI mode.
Am I clear enough? My english is not very good 
So you seem to be a lucky one to be the owner of an installer DVD of windows 8.
Which as well means that you are able to install everything again in a clean way.
It takes an effort to distribute the installation of windows over 2 physical drives.
I have a problem to believe that openSUSE 13.1 still creates a FAT16 partition as the EFI boot partition.
Your English clearly is well enough!
Good luck
Mike
hmm, ok, so ill need to make a clean install… On the 1 dev/sda (1TB) half for windows (only for games) and the other half for /home (opensuse)
On the SSD (32GB) the boot from windows and opensuse plus the /root and /boot from opensuse
my goal is to use the SSD to make a fast boot with both SOs
Is it ok?
You should take a decision.
32GB (your SSD) will in general be enough for a Linux root partition (or partition ‘/’).
Putting the Microsoft System Reserved partition on that device very likey would not speed up booting of windows,
because the bulk of the files at boot will still have to be read from ‘drive’ (or partition) ‘C:’.
If you think that 32GB for your windows ‘C:’ is enough, then OK, install windows there.
Otherwise install windows on the hard disk.
Linux/openSUSE would best be installed afterwards.
Good luck
Mike
That seems like a reasonable plan. I would suggest that you do not make a separate “/boot” partition. Just let that be part of the root partition.
Most of the commands that you use will be loading from the root partition, so you should get a good speedup and faster boot.
And a note to ratzi: My Window 8.1 is already using 40G of disk space, and I have not installed anything except firefox and the flash plugin for firefox.
Hi nrickert!
That was the reason why I left it to the OP to decide if he thinks that 32GB will be enough for the windows ‘drive’ C:.
One may even want to have another 50-100GB on that C: partition for user data!
Placing only the Microsoft System Reserved partition on that SSD won’t speed up booting that much 
Best wishes
Mike
thank you all for the help!
so, windows on half of the first HD (1TB) /home on the other half
on the SSD:
/root (opensuse)
what about EFI boot, linux swap? on SSD too? I got 8gb of RAM, i really need swap?
Linux/openSUSE would best be installed afterwards.
Why? I fear that windows can ruin linux if installed first, thanks to some ****** stuff on my bios like secure boot.
Hi pedroviskp!
Sounds good.
This will speed up booting of it.
You could boot in UEFI mode, your laptop probably supports that
(you didn’t give details yet, right?).
With respect to fast booting as such, it won’t even matter where your EFI boot partition is located.
With respect to be able to boot the system, it will probably matter - the device (SSD/hard disk) where your EFI boot partition is located
should probably be the first one in the list of the devices displayed by your BIOS.
With 8GB of RAM you probably won’t ever need swap.
Except you want to run apps with huge consumption of memory.
So allocating SWAP on your hard disk (instead of the SSD) should just be fine.
Windows can not ruin linux, if windows is installed first.
You refer to why installing Linux after windows.
Well, a simple reason is that Linux is designed for that:
almost any PC comes with Windows pre-installed.
Unlike you, most users of such PCs don’t have an installer DVD for windows.
And the way your partitions looked
(http://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/499507-Changing-Boot-Partition?p=2653495#post2653495)
you apparently don’t have a system with a pre-installed windows.
Further, openSUSE is ready for secure boot.
So install windows first, on the hard disk,
afterwards install openSUSE, with its ‘/’ (or root directory) on the SSD.
I’m confident that you know what to do
Best wishes
Mike
Well it is best to leave swap on the HD. Unless you don’t care how long the drive lasts. /tmp and /var/cache both see a lot of writing so best to move them to HD also.
SSD uses flash memory and flash wears out. you can only use so many erase cycles so it is best to give the drive longer life to put often changed things on the HD unless you don’t care how long the drive lasts. Note also the if a HD goes bad it might be possible to recover data but if a SSD goes bad chance a re slim to none that any data can be recovered. Which make backup of important data important. Since the drive is only 32 gig I suspect it is an older vintage and may have even been used which reduces the life from the start.
It is important to understand the tech. That extra speed has consequences
Yes, you need that EFI partition. It’s only 171M, if I am reading that correctly.
As for swap – I always provide some. Whether you really need, depends on how you use your system.
If you ever want to hibernate your linux system, you will need swap at least as large as your memory.
And yes, you are quite right. It’s best to install Windows first, because if installed later it might make a mess of your linux install.