Dual boot in a laptop

Hi all. I’m new here and I don’t know if this is the place where ask this. If it is not, please tell me.

I just get a Sony Vaio laptop with Windows 8.1 and I would install OpenSUSE 13.1 with a dual boot for now, but the computer has five partitions (in this order):

  • OEM partition (970 MB)
  • Recovery partition (840 MB)
  • EFI system partition (260MB)
  • C: (904 GB)
  • Recovery partition (25 GB)

My idea is to shrink the C: partition to get space for OpenSUSE (3 partitions: /, /home and /usr), but I don’t know what to do with the last partition. Anyone knows if can I leave it at the end or must it be just after the Windows partition?

And another question is if is it a good idea to keep Secure boot enabled…

Thank you.

It should be okay to leave it at the end.

I don’t know if there is a settled answer to that.

I left secure-boot enabled (except during some testing) on my dual boot system. I disabled it on another system which is linux only.

On 2014-05-19 17:36, Viskovitz wrote:

> My idea is to shrink the C: partition to get space for OpenSUSE (3
> partitions: /, /home and /usr),

Why do you want an “/usr” partition?
On the other hand, where is swap?

> but I don’t know what to do with the
> last partition. Anyone knows if can I leave it at the end or must it be
> just after the Windows partition?

Notice that if you use the recovery option it typically destroys and
reformats the entire disk. It may make sense to image it outside, and
delete it.

> And another question is if is it a good idea to keep Secure boot
> enabled…

Windows 8 might refuse to boot if you disable it. On the other hand,
Linux is easier to boot without it…


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

Ok, thank to both of you.

I thought to leave the recovery partition at the end but robin_listas is right, so I’ll do an image just in case (I’ll leave this partition for now).

Ok, you’re right, I wrote /usr but i meant /swap, I don’t know why, I spent a long time in front of computer yesterday…

Greetings / Saludos.

If you want to keep the recovery partition, it is best to leave it where it is, at the end. Depending on the manufacturer, some of them break if not at the end of the disk, while others do not seem to matter.

If you wish to use the extra space, then launch your Windows operating system, use the backup tool supplied by the laptop manager, and it will (usually) have an option to create backups of the original Factory recovery, as well as backups of your current system.

Make a couple copies of the original Factory recovery, if you plan to pass the laptop on to someone else after you have outgrown it.

Then, just delete the recovery partition.

On 2014-05-21 02:56, Fraser Bell wrote:

> If you want to keep the recovery partition, it is best to leave it where
> it is, at the end. Depending on the manufacturer, some of them break if
> not at the end of the disk, while others do not seem to matter.

That’s true.

However.

In the event of needing to run that thing in there, it will probably
destroy everything else in the disk, so it is best to never use it. And
if you do have to use it, what you can do is simply have a backup image
of it, with the partition table, so that you can rebuild the disk,
destroying Linux yourself, recreating that “restore” partition from the
backup, in the correct place, and run it.

Meanwhile, you can use that space for anything else you want.

And to avoid having to restore Windows using that /rescue/ thing, once
you have shrunk Windows to install Linux, maybe after Linux is installed
and working, create your own image backup of Windows and maybe Linux,
using clonezilla. If disaster happens to Windows, recover it yourself
from your backup, not from the rescue partition, so that Linux is not
destroyed in the process and you have to restart everything.

> If you wish to use the extra space, then launch your Windows operating
> system, use the backup tool supplied by the laptop manager, and it will
> (usually) have an option to create backups of the original Factory
> recovery, as well as backups of your current system.

Mine does not appear to have that option.

> Make a couple copies of the original Factory recovery, if you plan to
> pass the laptop on to someone else after you have outgrown it.
>
> Then, just delete the recovery partition.

Yep.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

Yes, I did a backup of Windows but with Clonezilla, such as robin_listas suggested. After that I installed OpenSUSE and it was all great (after a couple of attemps). When the computer restarted after the installation it showed GRUB and all works fine.

But now (after shutdown) GRUB does not work. The computer start with Windows directly. I think I’ve to read more about how to install OpenSUSE and Windows…

Thanks and greetings.

Some EFI BIOS’s are broken and insist on booting Windows. You should complain to the maker