Newbie disk partioning query

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I am new to the SUSE Linux world, but am keen to learn. I have a PC with two hard drives. Windows XP is installed on the first drive (/dev/sda), and the second drive (/dev/sdb) is currently empty. I would like to install SUSE on a partition in this second drive, leaving the remainder of the drive accessible to Windows.

I have a live CD install disk, derived from a magazine cover. The live version runs fine on my PC, although it takes an inordinately long time to load. I tried a dummy installation (ie aborting before anything was written to disk), and became confused at the disk partitioning stage. I am a novice in this area, but know enough to be nervous of overwriting disk partitions. As far as I could see there was not an option corresponding to what I wanted. I could shrink the Windows partition and install SUSE to a partition on /dev/sda (leaving /dev/sdb accessible to Windows?) or I could install SUSE on the entire second disk /dev/sdb. But I could not see how to make SUSE occupy just a part of /dev/sdb and leave the rest free for Windows.

I have tried searching the forums and googling for the answer, but only became more confused. Can anybody offer some plain advice as to how to proceed?

Peter

2

Use custom Partitioning and just use the second HD for your install.
Have look at this
Partitioning/Install Guide - openSUSE Forums

and
Watch a SUSE 11.1 install Slideshow - openSUSE Forums

and
Install Demo - With Pics and Video - openSUSE Forums

In your case make sure you get the bootloader to the MBR of the second HD. But that will require you change the boot order in BIOS so it becomes first in the boot list. If they are both SATA drives you may even have to move the current 2nd drive to the first SATA socket too
You’ll know if it’s right if it’s a SATA setup you have, because when you get to the bootloader part of the install either one or the other HD will be available to install grub to. So get it clear in your mind which is which drive, sort the order out and away you go.

3

Hi Peter.

You need to select “custom partition” when installing, that enables you to basically do whatever you want.

I would suggest familiarising yourself with the terms first, things like “/”, “/home”, “swap”, sizes, devices - “/dev/sda”, “/dev/sdb”, grub, and most importantly - boot partition and MBR.

A sad fact is that a lot of new users completely hose their systems by mistake when messing with partitions, or simply following a default installation.

First thing to do is BACKUP YOUR ENTIRE DISK!!!

A default installation WILL mess with the way your computer boots, and can very easily prevent you from even getting back into Windows.

I’m not a fan of the defaults, as it installs the boot loader on the new partition it creates, and won’t even boot into the new installation!

I would suggest removing (or simply disabling) your first hard drive before installation, that would mean that NOTHING will be touched on your original drive.

You can simply add it back in later, and if your BIOS supports it, select which disk to boot from :).

Here is some useful info if you feel like a read -

Installation - openSUSE

My advice is to take it slow and easy, you will feel like a newbie, that’s normal, but there are always people here to help you out if you ask nicely :).

Good luck :).

4

Well, I took the plunge and installed it last night. It almost worked!

To be fair, it did work. I now have a dual boot system with Windows XP / SUSE 11.1. The PC has two hard disks with Windows on the first disk and SUSE on the second. The only hiccup is that I installed SUSE on three partitions (/,/home and swap) on the second drive which did not together occupy the full disk space. Previously Windows could see the whole of the second drive as D:, but afterwards it cannot access any of this disk, not even the unused part, and D:\ has been automatically reassigned to the CD RAM drive.

Not an immediate practical problem. There was no data on the second disk, and the first disk has ample free space for my foreseeable Windows requirements. But it irks me that I have lost access to some of my storage. Perhaps not a fair question for a linux forum, but does anyone know how I can reclaim this for Windows?

Otherwise a brief initial play with my new toy has inevitably thrown up some more queries, but I’ll persevere a bit longer before posting these.

Peter

5

Yes, I do know that. In Yast - Partitioner you can create a 4th partition, and have it formatted with the FAT file system. Do not yet set a mount point.
After a reboot into XP it appears as D:\ (unless your XP refuses to give the D: back from the CD-drive. Seen that happen). The partition is read/write accessible for both Windows and Linux. Since it’s FAT there’s a limit to the file-size.
Now that it’s visisble from Windows you can format it with NTFS. Get back to us later how to mount that read/write in Linux.

6

Thanks for this.

I tried what you suggested last night. As you said, after creating the new partition as FAT, Windows could recognise it (as E:\ - D:\ remains as the CD RAM but I can live with this), and I then reformatted it as NTFS under Windows. This took about an hour, and as I had to be up early today (the London Underground is on strike, so it’s a long journey to work!) I haven’t tested it or tried to mount it under SUSE yet. But it’s looking hopeful.

7

I can tell you it won’t mount by itself. You have to open the partitioner, and add a mountpoint (/windows/E) for it. It should be using the ntfs-3g driver to give you full access to it. Please get back here and we’ll help you out with that.

Hope is keeping us alive ;), just like love.

8

Progressing slowly. My fourth disk partition is now formated as NTFS and seems to be fully working under Windows. Under SUSE it does not automatically mount, as you say, but I can mount it manually from within Nautilus, to /media/disk.

This is probably sufficient for the few times I will want to use it, but for my own education I would like to know how to mount it automatically. My guess is that I add another line to the /etc/fstab. Below I show my current fstab and my proposed amended version - just a line added with the disk identity copied from /home etc and the parameters (which I don’t understand) copied from /windows/C. Before I do anything rash, is this a sensible action, and if not can anyone suggest an alternative?

Peter

Current fstab:

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HDP725050GLA360_GEC564RJ19BG2J-part1 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HDP725050GLA360_GEC564RJ19BG2J-part2 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HDP725050GLA360_GEC564RJ19BG2J-part3 /home ext2 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2000JS-00NCB1_WD-WCANKA466124-part1 /windows/C ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0

Proposed fstab (/windows/E line added, everything else unchanged):

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HDP725050GLA360_GEC564RJ19BG2J-part1 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HDP725050GLA360_GEC564RJ19BG2J-part2 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HDP725050GLA360_GEC564RJ19BG2J-part3 /home ext2 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2000JS-00NCB1_WD-WCANKA466124-part1 /windows/C ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HDP725050GLA360_GEC564RJ19BG2J-part4 /windows/E ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_GB.UTF-8 0 0 <<<<< Line added
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0

9

This line could be edited to end this way:

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2000JS-00NCB1_WD-WCANKA466124-part1 /windows/C           ntfs-3g defaults 0 0

the E partition should be Ok, but end it the same way: defaults 0 0

10

Finally got around to looking at this. I initially tried my first suggestion (wanted to see if I had figured it out correctly). I found that the disk was mounted fine but turned out to be read only. Digging further, I discovered the first disk, ie the one holding the Windows system, was also read only.

So I tried replacing all the parameters with ‘defaults’ as suggested, and it now seems to work fine with both read/write access. I have left the Windows system disk as read only, as that seems safer!

Thanks to everyone for the help - I’m sure we’ll meet again before too long.

Peter

11

Well done Peter. Thanks for letting us know;)