Dual boot tutorial? Adding SuSE 11.0 to Windows 7

Hello, everyone.

My wife bought a new computer today. It’s an HP TouchSmart 300-1017. Has a 320 GB hard drive and Windows 7 installed. We’re hoping that the computer will play nice when SuSE is installed on it.

I would like to create a dual boot on this new computer, with Windows 7 relegated to a very minor role (for use when I need to go to a Windows-only website, for example to upgrade my Garmin GPS). SuSE would always be the primary system with the vast majority of disk space.

I did a quick Google search but did not find anything on creating a dual boot with Windows 7 and Linux. Can anyone point me to a tutorial that would walk me through the process?

I have not used Windows for about 8 years, and have not installed a Windows operating system in more years than that. So I’m totally behind the times on the operating system.

I currently use SuSE 11.0 on my other computers and have 11.1 available if necessary.

Can I partition the drive and squeeze the existing Windows 7 files into a smaller space, and then install SuSE into three newly created partitions (/, /home, and swap)?

Or is it best to back up the entire Windows drive and start from scratch, installing Windows 7 first, or SuSE first?

Thanks for pointing me to a tutorial. I really don’t want to screw this up, especially given that I remember almost nothing about Windows.

socref

I’m not sure 11.0 is a good idea, it doesn’t have long to run in lifetime. If you use 11.1 rather than the latest 11.2. I suggest using Gnome or kde3.

Yes you can shrink windows in to a smaller partition - windows must be occupying a huge space ATM. Depending on how much space you are using I would say you could shrink it safely in half. BUT first backup and then defrag.
Personally I would resize windows with Parted Magic
Using Parted Magic an Introduction - openSUSE Forums

In the free space create One extended partition that occupies all the free space
Like this, just ignore the sizes, it’s the principle
Partitioning - Windows Live

Install openSUSE
This is a 11.2 install
11.2 Slideshow Images - Windows Live

also this video
Custom Install.mpeg.rar - Windows Live

Why install 11.0 or 11.1 when 11.2 is available? Most of the bugs in it must have been rooted out and fixed by now and it’s got a long support lifetime currently as compared to 11.0 / 11.1. And it’s got KDE 4.3 and Gnome 2.28 by default. :stuck_out_tongue:

To dual-boot Windows 7 with openSUSE, just run the defragmentation tool on Windows first (disk defragmenter) to put all the file pieces on your hard disk into one space. Make sure you have plenty of hard disk space to spare for Suse. Then run the openSUSE installer. When you come to the partitioning part, it should suggest ‘Shrink Windows partition’ or something to that effect and to put the Suse partitions in the free space obtained after shrinking the Windows partition. If that’s what it seems to suggest, go ahead with the other parts of installation.
But don’t forget to defragment your Windows partitions before running the openSUSE installation; else shrinking a fragmented partition might delete some data files which could turn out to be disastrous.

Happy installation! :slight_smile:

(lots of snipping)

Many thanks for this reply. I can certainly switch to using SuSE 11.1.

We just received the pooter yesterday, so nothing’s been added to it other than to download the trial version of Norton Anti-Virus and whatever updates M$ and HP added during the registration process.

If I defrag the disk as it now sits will that consolidate the Windows 7 files to the point that I don’t need to further adjust the space allocated to Windows 7, and I can immediately proceed to installing SuSE into customized partitions?

Or are you suggesting that I still need to use Parted Magic to radically resize the space allocated to Windows 7?

In either case, would you also recommend that I partition Windows 7 so that the operating system info is separate from any personal files I might create in Windows? (That is, should I create a new drive “X” for my files? Remember, it’s been a LONG time since I used Windows and don’t remember much about it.)

Appreciate the reply. You’re always very helpful. :slight_smile:
socref

Thanks for this reply! :slight_smile:
socref

Defraging and resizing are not the same thing

Defrag will consolidate your files in to one area - rather than them being scattered all over, so when you shrink, you don’t corrupt data.

You can do all the partitioning with opensuse, infact if you just let the dvd installer do it’s stuff it will do it all for you.

Do you have a rescue CD just-in-case? Or if you have a spare hard drive (external, on a server, etc.) you can use Clonezilla to copy the entire partition or image for that “just in case” scenario.

Plan for the worst, hope for the best and you’ll get somewhere in-between. :wink:

Another thing to be aware of, windoze 7 has a hidden partition. When you install openSUSE 11.2 (or other) with the grub bootloader, the setup will show two windows partitions. Generally, only the first (windows 1) will be bootable (they hide their boot manager so we can’t change it). Just delete the windows 2 entry.

I’ve got openSUSE 11.2 running just fine with windoze 7 on a Dell studio 1745 laptop.

Something else to be aware of if (when) windoze needs to be repaired or re-installed, it will overwrite the MBR, so you will have to recover the grub loader.

Everyone’s experience will differ. If like you me you install W7 from a Full DVD Genuine W7 Ultimate, I just get ONE partition.
There was never any suggestion from windows that I should have more. Mind you, it’s a horrible installer. I mean talk about basic and insular. Whoever is responsible for it’s design needs lining up against the wall.

As for Grub and the Windows boot code. Fixing grub is a 2 minute job.
Re-Install Grub Quickly with Parted Magic - openSUSE Forums

For Windows, the installer is an after-thought, for Linux it has always been an important part since most computers don’t come with Linux installed. In other words, we’re spoiled :wink:

As I wrote in the initial post, I know nothing about Windows, so please forgive basic questions. What is on the Windows 2 partition? Is that an emergency recovery partition that maybe I should save just in case? Is it something else? What do I risk by deleting it?

(snip)

Oh, sorry for this question. I understand that on reinstall Windows will overwrite the MBR, thereby losing contact with SuSE, and that I need to re-create that lost linkage. Can I make a safety (backup) copy of the MBR and save it for reinsertion in case Windows overwrites it?

If yes, where is the MBR file located so that I can copy it and put that in a safe place?

Thanks!
socref

If you re-install windows and you loose grub, you can have it back to normal in a few minutes
Re-Install Grub Quickly with Parted Magic - openSUSE Forums

In any full non-OEM windows install you will only have 1 partition anyway.

THE MBR is the very first sector on the hard drive.It is the place the BIOS goes to start the boot process. You could copy it with the dd command but it is much easier and safer to just use the install media to correct the problem. At least until you understand more about computer systems.

Fully agree, the installer is horrible :sick:
For instance, it doesn’t let you choose anything at all so you’re forced to install everything and the kitchen sink.

Regardless whatever you use to install Win7, if it creates the 100MB recovery partition or not solely depends on one thing: if you install Win7 into unpartitioned space, it will always create the extra partition. If you install Win7 into an already formatted Ntfs partition, it will never create it. So, to avoid that it creates the extra partition, simply create a formatted Ntfs partition for it beforehand. As Win7 installs its boot loader to that extra partition (if it creates one), you cannot delete it anymore after installing Windows, or you would have to reinstall Windows.

Who in their right mind would leave windows to do it’s stuff with un-partitioned space?:stuck_out_tongue:

Oems that preinstall Windows on their notebooks and PCs :silly:

Sorry, guys. I read all the previous posts but I must not be understanding something, or maybe I’m in the wrong screen because I can’t figure this out.

I am trying to do a dual boot installation of SuSE 11.1 onto a virgin Windows 7 HP computer that has only had the available HP and Windows updates added to the hard drive. Some of the previous posts apparently thought I was trying to install Windows. I am not.

The computer shows Windows C: as having a fraction over 30 GB allocated space, and the Image drive (D:) as having just under 13GB of allocated space.

I defragged the Windows drive C: then inserted the SuSE disk and rebooted to start the install.

I get a screen that offers “Suggested Partitioning” and says:

Shrink windows /dev/sda2 to 115.22 GB
Create extended partition /dev/sda5 2.01 GB
Create root partition /dev/sda6 20.00 GB with ext3
Create partition /dev/sda7 147.86 GB for /home with ext 3
Set mount point of /dev/sda1 to /windows/C
Set mout point of /dev/sda4 to windows/E

Then I click on “Edit Partition Setup” and that’s where I get hopelessly confused.

At this point I see the following:

/dev/sda 298.08 GB
/dev/sda1 100MB NTFS System /windows/C
/dev/sda2 115.22 GB NTFS HP /windows/D
/dev/sda3 169.87 GB extended
/dev/sda4 12.91 GB NTFS factory image /windows/E
/dev/sda5 2.01 GB swap
/dev/sda6 20.00 GB native ext 3 /
/dev/sda7 147.86 GB native ext 3 /home

My first confusion is seeing the main windows drive showing up as “D” rather than “C.” Is that a problem or simply a labeling convention?

And what is the 100MB showing up as “C?” I saw a reference to the 100MB in a previous post but I don’t understand its significance (or lack thereof).

Next, the factory image that shows up as “D” when using Windows 7 shows up here as “E.” Another labeling convention or is this a problem?

If those labeling issues are nothing to worry about then I would like to shrink the Windows partition as much as possible since I’m not going to be saving much of anything to the C: drive. So I’m thinking of taking it down to, say, 40GB. Does that seem reasonable?

So to do that I clicked on the line that says:

/dev/sda2 115.22 GB NTFS HP /windows/D

and used the control arrows to run it down from 115.22 to 40 GB. I clicked “accept” and the screen refreshed to show:

/dev/sda2 40.00 GB NTFS HP /windows/D

So I thought I was making progress. But now I could not figure out how to take that roughly 75GB I had removed from Windows and add it to my Linux /home partition. How do I increase the /dev/sda7 partition from 147.86 GB to 222 GB?

Geez, is this an incredibly simple problem to which I’m just not seeing the solution? Am I trying to use the wrong editing screen to take from Windows and give to SuSE?

Wife and I are both stumped.

Your explicit guidance is greatly appreciated so I don’t screw up and actually have to install Windows! :expressionless:

Thx.
socref

It’s really not that complicated. But have you backed up any personal files. Do you have a windows install media or recovery disc?

Personally I would like to see an fdisk -l before giving you specific direction. But I can tell you the C and D naming of partitions by microsoft is a terrible practice. If it were me I would use Custom partitioning. You know which is the actual windows install partition - it’s the biggest: sda2

I think this proposal would work

Shrink windows /dev/sda2 to 115.22 GB
Create extended partition /dev/sda5 2.01 GB
Create root partition /dev/sda6 20.00 GB with ext3
Create partition /dev/sda7 147.86 GB for /home with ext 3
Set mount point of /dev/sda1 to /windows/C
Set mout point of /dev/sda4 to windows/E

It just fails to mention a mount for sda2 (only that it will shrink it). But I bet you any money in Grub there will be 3 windows entries. You see above sda1 is actually not C is it, it’s probably a windows boot partition. sda4 is some recovery partition I guess. I’m pretty confident that the above - if you let it rip, will do a nice job.

But as I say, me I would custom do it. Shrink sda2 create one big extended partition in the free space and create all my linux partitions in that. But actually that is all the above is doing.

Custom Install.mpeg.rar - Windows Live
You’ll probably need VLC to play this in winders.

11.2 Slideshow Images - Windows Live

Hard to really know what the 100 meg partition is. HP does weird things for unknown reasons. But I suspect is some form of hidden partition. But since it shows up as a NTFS partition Linux labels it C: even though it is most likely hidden to windows. And yes by convention the volumes are labeled sequentially but Linux has no way to know that the first is a secret one.

The one labeled E is the Windows image that is used to rescue you if your hard drive crashes. OOPS its on the hard drive that may have crashed. Bad luck that. How are you supposed to rescue a crashed drive from the drive. Well it is the magic Windows way. You just buy Windows once again.

If you shrink the sda2 partition you must expand or move the extended partition. You are not allowed to have gaps between partitions. In this case you expand it starting immediately after the sda2. Once the the extended is bigger you can expand the home sda7 partition to fill the space.

Remember no gaps

CAF, thanks for replying. I appreciate your time on this issue.

I guess my previous post was not as clear as it seemed to be. Again, the computer is a brand new HP with Windows 7. No personal files. The only things added have been the HP and Windows updates. So there’s nothing to back-up since I can always get those HP and Windows updates again if I need them.

Yes, I have a set of HP factory recovery disks and the Office 2007 disks that came with the computer.

(snip)

Yes, but that would leave me with a huge amount of unneeded space on the Windows partition. I want to shrink that and add the amount “shrunk” to my /home partition on SuSE.

As I described last time, I am able to shrink the /dev/sda2 partition from 115.22 GB to 40 GB. How do I then create one big extended partition to include that roughly 75GB I’m taking from Windows? That’s the issue here.

Again, the problem is NOT installing SuSE. I know how to do that, including setting up the swap, /, and /home partitions.

But how do I take the roughly 75GB I’m removing from sda2 (Windows) and add it to (move it to) the sda3 extended partition so I can then partition that to create the same sized swap and / partitions plus a much larger /home directory for SuSE?

If that is not clear then please tell me what more I need to explain to make it clear.

Thanks!
socref