Hi,
i’ve managed to clean instal my very first linux based os on my laptop. and there’s so much to learn! 
ok my question is there anyway to install win7 on top of opensuse? and dual boot them?
I’m asking this is because i’ve done a lot of searches but my results are all opensuse on top of an existing m$ system. perhaps i have not searched enough.
so is there some kind soul point me to the correct direction? thanks!
For dual booting Windows with Linux It is better to install Windows first then Linux. But if installing Windows second you can fix the boot to dual boot. Just a little more trouble
So did you leave space to install windows?
In a command line console type
su -
(enter the root password note this does not echo to screen)
fdisk -l (that is a lower case L not a one)
post output so we can see what you have setup now. Not you the console menu to copy then past in a message here in code tags see above bar (#) in the edit window
Please open a terminal and become su -
post result of this:
fdisk -l
What’s wrong with installing Windows 7 as a VM under VirtualBox? Then you can run both OS’s together, providing that you have enough CPU and RAM.
doing win 7 in VM would be a good way except … last time I looked it checks for a real hdd single partition and complains if it is not found. M$ kb’s also reference that certain versions can host vm but can not be a guest OS. Links eludes me right now and since they were from pre-release hype may not be valid anymore.
good question whether i did leave some space for windows. i guess i didnt forsee myself installing one. 
so i believe i have to do some repartitioning using a live cd huh?
Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0c90a2d8
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 262 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 * 263 2873 20972857+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 2874 9729 55070820 83 Linux
Looks that way Note that you can only have 4 primary partitions so it might be good to create logical partition. But that depends on your needs
Pmagic is a good way to deal with partitions.
IMO a 80GB HD is rather small to enjoy both win7 and openSUSE.
Let’s say you divide the HD in half. 40GB to win7 and the same to openSUSE. Can you see the discomfort?
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 262 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 * 263 2873 20972857+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 2874 9729 55070820 83 Linux
You could shrink sda3 to create sda4 of say 20GB, but I don’t think win7 will like it so small. I know it will install. I did a project on installing it in a logical partition
Picasa Web Albums - caf4926 - Win7 Project …
win7 is sda8/hda8
great my dvd reader just broke. i guess i have to postpone of installing windows. sorry guys.
rnd83 wrote:
> great my dvd reader just broke. i guess i have to postpone of installing
> windows. sorry guys.
>
>
i’d suggest you postpone installing Redmond’s until they have
something worth taking the chance of installing!
–
DenverD (Linux Counter 282315)
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Techwiz03:
doing win 7 in VM would be a good way except … last time I looked it checks for a real hdd single partition and complains if it is not found.
I am not saying you are wrong but it sounds a bit odd. Can you supply more details?
I have installed Win 7RC as a VB guest and there were no such problems. I also had a quick look on the VB forum for Windows Guests and many people seemed to have W7 VMs up and running, also with no problems.
I am just wondering if you may be thinking of the rather curious way the Windows 7 installation decides on the partitioning, which may have some relevance in this case. Elsewhere on the Suse forums there was reference to this article:
Multibooters, Vista Dual and Multibooting - Home Page
which is mainly concerned with multibooting Vista, but does cover the Windows 7 situation in some detail as well. It looks as though Windows 7 on an empty HDD will normally assign itself 2 partitions - a small recovery one of about 100MB, containing the BCD info, and a large one, for the actual system proper. There has been some disagreement elsewhere over this, with caf4926 and swerdna (hope you don’t mind being referenced) both originally claiming that W7 only used one partition. However, swerdna appears to now agree that two partitions do occur. This is supported in the above article.
The important thing the above article points out is that, if there is an existing Windows NT (of any sort) installation on the HDD, then the W7 installer will put the BCD code in that and you only get one extra W7 partition for the system. If there are only foreign (i.e. Linux) partitions and (I think) not enough spare MBR slots for the two W7 partitions then the W7 installer will simply delete some of the foreign partitions to free up sufficient MBR slots. That could happen here, since the OP has three slots allocated already.
You have to remember that this is a rather unusual situation with the system being Linux and Windows added later. Almost every other situation on these forums has had it the other way round. Hence we are a little in the dark, I would submit.
That is why I think the VB option is the way to go. It would be helpful if the OP outlined the reason for adding in W7. If it is just to see what it looks like or to use MSO then a VM is sufficient. If it is to support some hardware then maybe not.
Hope these remarks are helpful.
As I said, it was pre-release Win 7, I have no-one that even considers Win 7 after the few that were considering it before it was released. M$ typically does make changes between pre and post releases so my info is out-of-date. I only made the point as something to check.
I am just wondering if you may be thinking of the rather curious way the Windows 7 installation decides on the partitioning, which may have some relevance in this case. Elsewhere on the Suse forums there was reference to this article:
Fresh hdd (no OS) Vista & Win 7 make 2 partitions (one for recovery, one for OS) where the recovery partition size is ~100MB on some versions and as big as 1.9GB on others depending on whether it is box set or OEM. Boxset is smaller because it calls for original install DVD’s where the OEM puts whole packed OS. This recovery partition is designed such that it does not end on a sector boundary to try and trick up installers of other OS’s. In addition, if the windows partition is erased but not deleted, the recovery partition gets called first, see’s the windows partition is empty and triggers re-install/repair.
My reference to this is investigating converting new machines with both types of OS (box vs OEM) to Dual boot Linux/Windows Machines. With New machines that from the outset have Windows installed, and haven’t yet been put into use, the easiest way is to use the ‘make factory DVD’s’ options if an OEM install, then regardless of Box/OEM wipe the drive partitions and recreate single partition for OS, Extended for windows/Linux shares and other separations, and optionally either 2 for Linux root/swap or just put root/swap also into extended. Once this is done, Windows re-installs then Linux Installs, and shared drives for windows are formatted in windows.
which is mainly concerned with multibooting Vista, but does cover the Windows 7 situation in some detail as well. It looks as though Windows 7 on an empty HDD will normally assign itself 2 partitions - a small recovery one of about 100MB, containing the BCD info, and a large one, for the actual system proper. There has been some disagreement elsewhere over this, with caf4926 and swerdna (hope you don’t mind being referenced) both originally claiming that W7 only used one partition. However, swerdna appears to now agree that two partitions do occur. This is supported in the above article.
My experiences with dual boot also concur with this that depending what is found and what type of install is being done determines how many partitions will be used.
The important thing the above article points out is that, if there is an existing Windows NT (of any sort) installation on the HDD, then the W7 installer will put the BCD code in that and you only get one extra W7 partition for the system. If there are only foreign (i.e. Linux) partitions and (I think) not enough spare MBR slots for the two W7 partitions then the W7 installer will simply delete some of the foreign partitions to free up sufficient MBR slots. That could happen here, since the OP has three slots allocated already.
Partly true. Windows 7 like it’s Vista predecessor is designed not to co-exist with other M$ OS’s which are in the class of ‘basic’ or ‘home’. To be able to multi-boot, the other OS’s must be ‘professional’ or ‘Ultimate’ class. In all cases, if the MBR boot code is not a M$ boot sector, the installer will replace the foreign code with it’s single boot version (thereby deleting access to Linux and any other OS that is installed).
In the days of diskettes, Linux CD’s use to ship with saveboot program in a directory called DOSutilities and you could make a boot disk, copy the programs there, boot from the disk and save the windows mbr to the disk (512bytes), install Linux and repeat the save of mbr. Now when you need to re-do windows you would just restore the original mbr, fix windows then restore the Linux mbr. But this method meant you had to make sure partitions were set-up with space for Linux before the original save and no partition changes were made after it was done. Today, this functionality is done using a Linux diskette and the dd command.
You have to remember that this is a rather unusual situation with the system being Linux and Windows added later. Almost every other situation on these forums has had it the other way round. Hence we are a little in the dark, I would submit.
That is why I think the VB option is the way to go. It would be helpful if the OP outlined the reason for adding in W7. If it is just to see what it looks like or to use MSO then a VM is sufficient. If it is to support some hardware then maybe not.
Hope these remarks are helpful.
Yes keeping Linux as primary OS then adding Windose 7 is unusual. Having 3 partitions already would most likely require shrinking a partition and creating an extended one in the free space with two or more logicals and at least one of the logicals would need to be NTFS so windose could try and install there. But … getting the system up with windose as a VB is by far the best hope without a complete re-do.
Absolutely with no doubt - WIN7 will only create 1 (ONE) partition.
(I used the WIN7 RC way back and that was the same.)
Most recently I use windows7 ultimate full DVD from Tech net
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/default.aspx
YMMV
Especially if you use some random media supplied with a PC
@swerdna and I do not disagree
But my memory is a forgetory and I don’t recall the detail of any earlier threads. But I guess we had a discussion.
If John did find he ended up with more than 1 partition, my guess is he didn’t use a full dvd, but some OEM/pc supplied rubbish.
Just to say thank you techwiz03 for that detailed explanation. I think reading that and this thread here:
Dual boot tutorial? Adding SuSE 11.0 to Windows 7 - Page 2 - openSUSE Forums
especially post #14, I deduce you will get one partition for W7 if you set up a formatted NTFS partition before hand. Those people who start with an empty disk and accept the defaults will get 2.
Actually caf4926, looking at post #15 of the above thread, it looks as though that is what you do. If not then I do not understand how you always manage to achieve a one partition install.
(I used the WIN7 RC way back and that was the same.)
and I used the exactly the same and got two partitions.
Maybe, caf4926, I can turn the question around the other way. Suppose I had your DVD, I start with an empty disk and I wanted two partitions (the first being the recovery). How would I do that? This is valid in the situation where I want an option, in the case of unfortunate catastrophes, to invite me to reinstall from the DVD or plug in my backup storage. The recovery partition also seems to have an impact on the use of BitLocker.
I think the recovery BCD partition and forcing the W7 partitions to start on 1 MB boundaries may be an anticipation of the switch over from MBR to GPT and the replacing of the good old BIOS with EFI.
I agree W7 is overrated: ‘Never before in the field of human endeavor have so many programmers labored for so long to product something so useless’.:\
I always create my partitions before hand - Yes.
No way I’m letting windows run riot with a disc.
Why would I want a recovery partition, I’ve got the install media.