removing windows xp partions for opensuse11.0

logan999 · August 8, 2009, 8:28pm

Sorry for the length. Its pretty special and Im trying to be complete.

Back story:
I have a Fujistu Slate Tablet ST4120 with NO bootable media other than the hard drive. For more details of my adventure so far please search for my other posts on this forum.

I pretty much have it all working now and would like to remove windows and the dual boot from the machine and reformat the partition so its linux usable, or could be added to the /home partition. Its a 60 gig drive with about half for the windows partition.

Question:
To remove the dual windows boot, it seems like I can simply re-format the partition to an ext3 and it should be good.
however, should I do this from the windows partition dual boot with the opensuse loader, or can I do this from Expert Partitioner? Does it matter?

I have over 100 hours of really painful setup into this thing now, and I really don’t want to do anything dumb.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.

caf4926 · August 8, 2009, 8:37pm

Open a terminal become su and do

fdisk -l

post result

logan999 · August 8, 2009, 8:40pm

Oh your a big help

caf4926 · August 8, 2009, 8:44pm

What’s that supposed to mean. If you don’t understand just say so and I’ll walk you through it.

It’s a serious business telling someone how to format a partition. Without that info, I’m flying blind!

logan999 · August 8, 2009, 9:05pm

Look I apologize for that. I have had some “issues” at other forums, and Im a bit touchy around one line commands after SU.
I should not have replied like that. I really appreciate your help.

Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
522 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 *512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk Identifier: 0x000cc6cb
Device Boot Start End Blocks ID System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3999 32113935 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3999 7296 26491153+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dec/sda5 3999 4060 497952 82 Linux swap / solaris
/dev/sda6 4061 5363 10466316 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 5364 7296 15526791 83 Linux

baskitcaise · August 8, 2009, 8:59pm

caf4926 adjusted his/her AFDB on Saturday 08 Aug 2009 19:46 to write:

>
> logan999;2023608 Wrote:
>> Oh your a big help
> What’s that supposed to mean. If you don’t understand just say so and
> I’ll walk you through it.
>
> It’s a serious business telling someone how to format a partition.
> Without that info, I’m flying blind!
>
>

Ha Ha Ha…

Sorry should not laugh not your fault caf

I think the OP might be thinking in windows speak here and thought you are
telling him to fdisk his whole drive

To the OP, do what caf said, the command will give a readout of how you disk
is partitioned, you can just C&P into your reply.

The other way would be to use the partitioner to get your layout and then
you would have to type it all in by hand, so caf was saving you time and
fingers.

HTH

–
Mark
Caveat emptor
Nullus in verba
Nil illegitimi carborundum

caf4926 · August 8, 2009, 9:25pm

It’s possible.
This is how I would do it. Use a utility disk like Parted magic: Downloads - Parted Magic

Boot from it, I find the Failsafe boot works best then type: menu when it arrives at a CLI. Try normal boot, it may work for you.

Use the partitioner there to format sda1 to ext3. Give it a Volume label if you like.

When done boot back to suse and add in the Partition.
I would do it manually by editing /etc/fstab
My Vista partition had this happen to it. It looks like this:

cat /etc/fstab
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9160827AS_5RF16D1B-part5 swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9160827AS_5RF16D1B-part2 /                    ext3       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9160827AS_5RF16D1B-part1 /STORE               ext3       defaults              1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9160827AS_5RF16D1B-part6 /home                ext3       defaults              1 2
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
#usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0
/sys/bus/usb/drivers /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=111,devmode=664 0 0

My fdisk

/dev/sda1               1        8486    68163763+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2   *        8487       10575    16771829   83  Linux
/dev/sda3           10575       19457    71352666+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5           10575       10965     3140676   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6           10966       19457    68211958+  83  Linux

FSTAB - Editing Manually - openSUSE Forums

FYI: Global Moderators don’t tell users to bork their systems!
At least I hope not.:X

ALSO
Your MBR will be fine. But it’s possible you will need to put the bootable flag* on your root partition (sda6 by the looks of it). You can do that in Parted magic too.

I always take care to backup anything important.

baskitcaise · August 8, 2009, 9:24pm

logan999 adjusted his/her AFDB on Saturday 08 Aug 2009 20:06 to write:

>
> Look I apologize for that. I have had some “issues” at other forums, and
> Im a bit touchy around one line commands after SU.
> I should not have replied like that. I really appreciate your help.
>
> Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
> 522 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 *512 = 8225280 bytes
>
> Disk Identifier: 0x000cc6cb
> Device Boot Start End Blocks ID System
> /dev/sda1 * 1 3999 32113935 7 HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/sda2 3999 7296 26491153+ f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
> /dec/sda5 3999 4060 497952 82 Linux swap / solaris
> /dev/sda6 4061 5363 10466316 83 Linux
> /dev/sda7 5364 7296 15526791 83 Linux
>
>

I will field this one for caf just in case he does not come back <grin>

You can use the petitioner in Yast to format the partition

> /dev/sda1 * 1 3999 32113935 7 HPFS/NTFS

then while you are there you tell it what you want to do, if you want to
mount it to a dir in your home make the dir first then just tell the
partitioner to mount it on boot and point it at the dir.

Simples

Now the only other thing is purely cosmetic but also while in Yast goto the
bootloader configurator and delete the entry for the windows and just leave
the SuSE ones that gets rid of the entry in the boot screen save and reboot

voila…

A nice MS free laptop, may you never go back.

Enjoy.

Mark
Caveat emptor
Nullus in verba
Nil illegitimi carborundum

logan999 · August 8, 2009, 9:56pm

I don’t have any bootable media other than the hard-drive.
I take it I will have to use yast partitioner?

Looks like its a live CD.

Well I guess I could get it and move the drive back to my desktop

caf4926 · August 8, 2009, 10:02pm

I thought you might have usb boot ability - nevermind.

Yes. But the partition must be unmounted first.

Then Yast Partitioner can do it all, well all you tell it to do!