I’ve just recently decided to try Linux, but I want to keep Windows 7 on my computer as well. This is also the first time messing with things like partitions. Could anyone lead me to a good site where I can figure out how to partition my hd, dualboot openSUSE, and fix any problems that may occur? Thanks.
Ideally you should try a live CD first and whilst doing that - open a terminal and type:
**su **(then hit enter)
then type;
fdisk -l (Hit enter : that’s a lower case L by the way)
post result - it will tell us about your current partitions, which may or may not be suited to an install. Windows 7 PC/Laptops are often poorly partitioned.
I was hoping there was a way to figure all this out before downloading openSUSE. I’m a high school junior, so I don’t have the time to do such a large download, then burn the iso to a disk. I’m just going to have to wait for summer vacation in order to figure it out. Thanks for the advice.
I forgot to ask: how would you open a terminal?
I found out that I can use disk management to look at My partitions. But what I have seems kind of strange. Through research, I saw that most people had 1 or 2 partitions to start out with.
I have… 4:
a 200 MB “SYSTEM” partition
a 280 GB (C:) partition (the main, i assume)
a 15 GB RECOVERY(D:) partition
and a 100 MB HP_TOOLS partition (which must be
something that HP put in since this is a HP laptop.
Is this what you meant by Windows 7 computers being poorly partitioned?
ViggyNash: I would strongly advise you not to attempt a dual boot setup of Windows 7 and Suse 11.2 on your computer.
I anticipate all of your partitions are primary (disk manager in Windows should show you). Since you are allowed a maximum of 4 primary partitions, some of those would have to be converted from primary to logical inside a special primary partition termed ‘extended’. Suse would then be installed as a series of logical partitions inside that extended partition.
Sounds complicated? It is and there is some controversy at the moment about just how well the Suse installer would cope. Especially with Windows 7.
Is there an easier way? Yes, with advent of very efficient virtualization software such as the free VirtualBox,
you can install Suse as a virtual machine (VM) ‘guest’ inside your Windows 7 ‘host’ system. Your partitions are then left as they are and no damage done if things go wrong with the Suse 11 installation. The other advantages are that:
-
you can use both systems simultaneously so you don’t have to keep rebooting back and forth to access files (Windows 7 cannot read Linux file systems without special software) or use a particular piece of software (such as MS Office) on one system;
-
you can have fully integrated Windows and Suse desktops / taskbars so facilities on both can be run together;
-
USB and CD/DVD hardare is accessible simultaneously.
The disadvantages are that you will not be able to:
A) do CPU intensive tasks such as video editing in Suse all that well
B) you cannot burn CDs with the Suse K3B since a CD/DVD writer on the host will look like a CDrom drive in the guest and
C) you cannot directly access hard disks with low level utilities such as ‘dd’.
So try out VirtualBox and see if you like Suse as a VM. If you do and then wish to rid yourself of Windows 7 (or do some complicated repartitioning for dual boot) then you can explore that later.
Hope that helps.
I agree with @plodder
Use Virtual Box to experiment.
The partitions you have are a typical load M$ BS
Thanks for the advice. But, in your opinion, would it be better to run linux off a live cd or create a vm? I see drawbacks to both sides, and can’t really decide.
Run linux in Virtual Box
Not a CD!
A Flash drive is really quick mind you!
I was looking around the HP forums, and I found out that the HP_TOOLS stuff isn’t very important.
“It is a diagnostic partition that contains tools allowing access directly to the BIOS from Windows … although it is not necessary to the basic operation fo the laptop.”
Since I probably will not need to access the BIOS, removing this partition wouldn’t really be a loss. In fact, the guy who responded suggested it to dualboot.
If I could remove that partition and create a new one for linux… is there anything else I would need to worry about (besides the download, burning to cd, and installation)?
You need at least 2 partitions one for root and one for swap. Also be default Suse likes 3 swap.root and home. But you can change that.
Also 100 megabytes is not near enough. 10 gig for an absolute min install and don’t expect to install much additional.
My G550 Laptop had similar partitioning. I just wiped it and re-installed windows in One partition - I don’t ever use windows, it’s only there so I can test it in dual boot scenarios.
But I have access to install media that you probably don’t.
You should be able to make a set of recovery disks that essentially replaces the 15GB recovery partition.
Why not download, extract and then burn Parted Magic, then boot from it and get us this from a terminal
fdisk -l
That way we can see better what your partitions are.
What exactly about the partitions did you want to know?
I don’t really have the time to get Parted Magic at the moment (finals are coming up) and I would rather use the recources already at hand to figure this out.
If what you need to know can only be found by Parted Magic or something similar, you would have to wait for a couple weeks until I had time.
You mentioned that you wiped the hard drive then reinstalling Windows on 1 partition. That may be a better option, but I would have to backup everything I have. I’ll have to see about that later.
The trouble is that Windows does not show all needed info about partitions all the time. In fact it is pretty poor.
If you can get any bootable Linux go to the command line and enter
fdisk -l
then post the results here it will let use see what you really have.
No problem about waiting. Got to do what you got to do lol!
I suggested Parted Magic because it’s small to download and by far the best tool around as well as being a LiveLinux CD.
I can wait until you have time and I suggest you don’t do anything in a hurry.