Problems installing Leap 15.3 on my Windows HDD.

I’m trying to get an image in susepaste, but it keeps erroring out on me.
This would all be easier of susepaste was working!

SO here is fdisk -l

fdisk -l
**Disk /dev/sda: 149.05 GiB, 160041885696 bytes, 312581808 sectors**
Disk model: WDC WD1600AAJB-0
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xfb30b87c

**Device****Boot****    Start****      End****  Sectors**** Size****Id****Type**
/dev/sda1            2048  16779263  16777216    8G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2  *     16779264 121143295 104364032 49.8G 83 Linux
/dev/sda3       121145344 311871487 190726144 90.9G 83 Linux


**Disk /dev/sdb: 465.76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors**
Disk model: ST500NM0011      
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00000001

**Device****Boot****    Start****      End****  Sectors****  Size****Id****Type**
/dev/sdb1  *           64    204863    204800   100M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT **<<< System reserve**
/dev/sdb2          208845 167981183 167772339    80G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT **<<< Windows 10**
               **THere is an empty space here about 170 GB**
/dev/sdb3       531282528 976769071 445486544 212.4G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT <**<< Windows 7**

Between Win 10 partition and Win 7 partion is a 170GB empty non formatted area I would like to install Leap in to.

I have tried many time today, and when I get that area partitioned, and start the install, set swap. ‘/’ & ‘/home’
I get a message that there is not enough room before the 1st partition, and I Need to add about 180 kib. ANd warns if I continue the system MAY not boot.

lsblk -l
NAME MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda    8:0    0 149.1G  0 disk  
sda1   8:1    0     8G  0 part [SWAP]
sda2   8:2    0  49.8G  0 part /
sda3   8:3    0  90.9G  0 part /home
**sdb    8:16   0 465.8G  0 disk  
sdb1   8:17   0   100M  0 part  
sdb2   8:18   0    80G  0 part  <<< Win10
  >>>> large empty space here I want to add Leap to <<<<<
sdb3   8:19   0 212.4G  0 part  <<< Win 7
**
sr0   11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  **<< optic drive**

FInally found a susepaste that works.
here is the image. https://paste.opensuse.org/80698146https://paste.opensuse.org/80698146
With the empty parts as unallocated. YES, I have set up a partition, and three different partitions there at different times(usually with it formatted as xfat or fat3)
Always get the ‘Not enough space before the first partition, Add 256Kib’
I am still dumb enough to not fully know what the installer is doing.

PS; IF I have my working Leap drive connected, IT WON"T let me creae a ‘/’ and '/home/ . so start over again. and again and again…

Your first partition starts at sector 64. There are 63 sectors between the MBR and the first partition. It is complaining that this is not enough space.

As far as I know, that’s only a problem if you are using “btrfs”.

If you want to create both “/” and “/home” as separate partitions, then you need to create an extended partition with that 170G, and put “/” and “/home” (and perhaps a swap partition) inside that extended partition.

There are other circumstances that can make the need larger, maybe employing RAID or LVM. I really don’t remember.

The relevance of this can be avoided by not putting Grub at the MBR. Put it on a partition instead. That will make it easier in the long run to keep Windows happy. Doing so will cause frequent Grub update warnings about non-reliability of installing on a partition. That has never been a problem for me, and I have hundreds of installations with Grub always, if MBR disk, either on partition or nowhere, and never on MBR.

Thanks for the response.
I don’t use ‘btrfs’. I can get a ‘/‘, ‘/home’ and a small ‘swap’, but when I get that message, I abort the install. Too weary about messing up Windows. I DON’T use Win10(too bloated, takes forever to do anything because it grabs rescources forb’uodates’).
I keep Win7 for loading my iPod.

That drive is the main drive in the machine. No RAID.(however I do plan on reconnecting the PCI HDD after the install is complete)
LVM I don’t know about. IIRC, there is something about LVM in the installer.(not sure).
How does the installer ‘NOT’ put Grub at the MBR? I don’t remember that being part of the set up.

The YaST installer partitioner has a section where there are inputs to determine where it will be installed. You uncheck the MBR box, and check the box to install on the root partition, or boot partition, as the case may be. You may need to type in /dev/sdb2, or whatever the target’s device name turns out to be.

Ya! Sure, you betcha, I will look at that when I put Leap 15.2(yes 2!) on my drive(s) AFTER losing very thing with the latest kernel update!

I can’t even boot the machine without it going into some ‘RESCUE>‘ mode, that is as foreign to me as a language I can’t understand!

Thanks however for all your input!