Dual boot / Installation w/out shrinking Windows partitions

Hello,

I had the following partition setup at the time of initial install:
/sda1 - primary WinOS system
/sda2 - primary C:
/sda3 - primary Rescue
/rest - 245 Gb unallocated
42.2 installed without any problems.

Later two logical partitions were added to C: making part of it extended. MBR restored with YaST - no problems for dual boot.

After deciding for 42.2 clean install, Linux partitions were deleted from Windows, thus bringing back to initial setup above, however, 42.2 now requests to shrink Windows partitions, allocating only about ~30 Gb for itself overall - and claiming there is no sufficient space, irrespective of 245 Gb unallocated and 1 primary slot left.

Can you please help me with the issue without having to shrink Windows partitions?

Many thanks in advance.

Is this a old BIOS machine or are you using legacy booting? If so are you booting installer in legacy mode??

Is there an existing extended partition (you mention logical)??

You can take full control of the install you don’t have to use the recommended

If the drive is using DOS partition ( I assume it is since extended and logical partition don’t exist on GPT) You can have a max of 4 primary partitions one which can be an extended. You can have many more logical partition in the extended. There is no reason to leave unused space after the extended it can not be used.

Without more definitive information we can only guess :open_mouth:

Thank you for the prompt reply.

BIOS supports both Legacy/UEFI booting, however, when running installer in UEFI mode suggestions are to completely wipe Windows partitions and allocate the entire disk for 42.2 (Legacy suggests shrinking only) :slight_smile:

At the time of the first 42.2 install partitions were as per my initial post, but later /sda2 was split under Windows adding 2 more logical drives. And booting into both 42.2/Windows with no problems.

After deletion of existing 42.2 partitions in Windows, thus leaving only Windows/Recovery ones. 42.2 installer detects the following:
/sda1 - as per previous
/sda2 - as per previous
/sda3 - as per previous
/sda4 - extended (!)
/sda5 - logical added drive 1
/sda6 - logical added drive 2
… and suggests shrinking of all 3 Windows data partitions: /sda2, /sda5 and /sda6…

Guess, I will have to proceed with merging Windows data into single /sda2 again to eliminate /sda4 extended, install 42.2 and then go back to split /sda2 as per desired sizes.

Will it be possible to convert /sda to GPT without data loss during 42.2 installation and keep Windows 7 x64 operating and bootable - to avoid the above mentioned merging/splitting procedures?

First, check if you are booting in Legacy or UEFI with Windows. Mixed can be done, but it is not always easy nor the best way.

It would be less problem to make certain both Windows and openSUSE are installed in the same, that is, both Legacy or both UEFI.

Also, more precision is required in your information, although I think I know your layout, but guessing can be hazardous.

So, boot with the installer, go to the Rescue system.

In there, get the output for:

fdisk -l

That is a lowercase L, not a numeral one.

and the output for:

parted -l

Please copy and paste the output to a file so that you can copy and paste that to this forum. Include the command as given along with the corresponding output.

When pasting into your message here, Please Make Certain to paste it between CODE tags. To do that, find the # symbol at the top of the message editing window, it is second row, 3rd from right. Click that symbol, and your cursor will be blinking between to CODE markup tags. Paste there.

Oh. How to get the output from the Rescue terminal to a file? Easiest is if you can plug in a USB key. You would simply mount that key with:

mount /dev/sdXN /mnt

You can find out what the true letter and number for that device would be using either of the above commands.

Once mounted, run the above commands but add a redirect to a file on the device you just mounted, as follows:

fdisk -l > /mnt/fdiskoutputfile
parted -l > /mnt/partedoutputfile

If you had a Linux partition on the HD, you could have mounted and used that instead, but I think you only have Windows partitions, AFAICS.

That output is needed. Only then can we really begin to help you.

Thanks, Gerry!

Unfortunately, I will have to postpone this problem for about a fortnight (I guess so), until I will get an extra external HDD to save my data.

Okay. See you then.