Partition Problem during Installation

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi,

I am trying to install openSUSE 11.2 from the installation DVD in a Windows XP SP3 system.
I want to have a Dual Boot system, i.e. I do want to keep Windows for now.
When it comes to the partitioner during installation, I get the following message concerning Windows:
“Resize impossible due to inconsistent fs.”

Some information about my system:

  1. It has a single partition, where Windows is located. No hidden partitions, no recovery partitions.
  2. Swap file is deactivated.
  3. Windows recovery is deactivated.
  4. All updates have already been installed.
  5. There are no installed programs, which bypass the OS to write to the disk.
  6. Scandisk has been run.
  7. Master table, metadata, system files and so on have been defragmented at boot time.
  8. Data files have been defragmented.
  9. Free space has been consolidated, with additional defragmentation pass.
  10. Scandisk has been run again, with no errors found.

I have found 2 possible solutions in internet, but I am not really convinced:

  1. Make the installation program use LVS. Does it “always” work in normal cases? Wouldn’t it be an inferior alternative when compared to the “normal” partition?

  2. Use GParted (or similar). But if it is open source, if it does what the installer cannot and if it were so good, wouldn’t openSUSE already have integrated it?

Any other suggestion of how I could solve the original problem of “inconsistent fs.”?

Many thanks,
Jonas.

2

Check your Windows partition and defragment it under Windows before trying anything on it.

Resize (if needed) your Windows partition and create the ones you need for Linux with Parted Magic (bootable CD) before installing openSUSE, then choose ‘create partition setup’ during openSUSE setup, select your Linux partitions, format and mountpoint. Install Grub in MBR. This method is easier and safer.
http://forums.opensuse.org/install-boot-login/431641-need-help-partitioning-dual-boot-2.html#post2110174

3

It would have helped if we had a fdisk -l output too.
Parted Magic can do that easily Downloads

Using Parted Magic an Introduction - openSUSE Forums

4

@KennyBaker: I editted your post, since it contained advertising references.

5

I presume you meant “chkdsk” rather than scandisk. Be sure you are running it with the /r option, which will run chkdsk upon re-boot (because the volume must be locked).

The error message comes from the openSUSE installation program which performs safety checks beyond what “parted” (the partitioning library used by the installer, GParted, etc.) does. GParted will probably do the re-sizing, just be sure to have a backup (as you should do in any case before changing the partition table with any OS or tool). There are a lot of LiveCD’s with it; my recommendation would be PartedMagic which will have the most recent version plus a lot of other useful disk management tools (including TestDisk, which is a serious recovery tool).

If you aren’t familiar with Logical Volumes, then stay away from that.