Undetectable dual boot...

Hello,

  1. I’m using the computer in my office which runs Windows 7 and I don’t have the administriator account for the windows OS. I had installed openSUSE with the USB key and followed this tutoriol: Dual-Booting Windows and openSUSE, which doesn’t modify MBR but only use partition based boot loader.

However the last step couldn’t be done because EasyBCD needs to be used with administritor rights in Windows. Now I have to uninstall the openSUSE system for the moment. (I found much space had been reclaimed by the installation of openSUSE)

What do I need to recover the space? Please note that I don’t have administrator rights in windows and can’t use “Disk manager” in it.

  1. Similar scenery, I installed Ubuntu in another computer in the office with a live USB key. However I couldn’t use EasyBCD in the windows system as I didn’t have an administrator account so the machine boots directly to Windows unless the live USB is plugged during boot, then I could boot the Ubuntu installed on the machine (not my live USB system). This wasn’t intended but worked well for the situation, coz the Ubuntu system is almost unnoticeable except that you may only find disk capacity decrease.

So I wonder how I can install openSUSE like this.

Thanks a lot.

Quite honestly I’m reluctant to offer advice to someone who isn’t an admin of a PC to do this.
The admin obviously didn’t think of locking people out of the BIOS!

Regardless, I don’t like that guide and certainly don’t like EasyBCD.

You should discuss your plans with the PC owner / admin
But I recommend Grub as bootloader.

I am installing another OS just to avoid leaving any impact on the office pc. These pcs are barely administered and there are far more destructive guys who throw everything on their pcs…

Anyway, maybe an instruction on how I should delete the reclaimed disk space and partition based boot loader? I am not sure if I can just use the live USB and delete the partitions created during the installation of openSUSE.

The openSUSE live USB’s system installer can manage/delete and create partitions.
Typically though, personally I use Parted Magic’s Gparted from a live USB to manage my partitions.

I’m not sure I can tell you what to do, mostly because I have no idea what you have.

Let me link you to an example install
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3e0lLG3OdqEUV93Z0w1UWtTMjg/edit?usp=sharing

I actually mark up grub like this
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3e0lLG3OdqEZjJCMGlIY2JWXzQ/edit?usp=sharing
You can check the Extended partition too for good measure if you have an extended

On 2013-02-07, bonedriven <bonedriven@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> 1. I’m using the computer in my office which runs Windows 7 and I don’t
> have the administriator account for the windows OS.

I’m sure you’d agree that the objections of caf4926 are legitimate. In
order to change the organisation of partitions of a hard drive, you
really should be an administrator of the PC. With installing Linux,
surely you were intending to have access to root privileges which will
give you same effective control over the hard drive? If you really want
to separate administrator/root rights over the operating systems, a
plausible (though by no means ideal) solution would be to have two
different hard drives installed.

> However the last step couldn’t be done because EasyBCD needs to be used
> with administritor rights in Windows.

Correct. You should never have considered EasyBCD without administrator
rights in Windows.

> Now I have to uninstall the
> openSUSE system for the moment. (I found much space had been reclaimed
> by the installation of openSUSE)

If you want to restore you hard drive to the state it was before you
installed openSUSE, this is best done within Windows - and if you don’t
have administrator rights to Windows, you have to apologise to the
person who does and ask him/her to do it for you. If you do not have
access such a person, then I have to ask you why do you not have
administrator rights on that computer?

> 2. Similar scenery, <SNIP>
> So I wonder how I can install openSUSE like this.

You need a boot manager to give you the option of which operating system
to boot with. The default openSUSE option is GRUB2, but the optimal
choice will depend on your hardware configuration among other things. Of
course it’s perfectly possible to install openSUSE alongside existing
partitions but if I was the Windows administrator of that computer, I
would be legitimately worried by any changes in the partition and prefer
to oversee/perform installations of additional operating systems myself.
On a `business desktop’, my first preference would be to install an
additional hard drive for Linux, and Linux only.

On 2013-02-07, bonedriven <bonedriven@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> 1. I’m using the computer in my office which runs Windows 7 and I don’t
> have the administriator account for the windows OS. I had installed
> openSUSE with the USB key and followed this tutoriol: ‘Dual-Booting
> Windows and openSUSE’
> (http://www.tweakhound.com/linux/suse/113/dualboot/1.html), which
> doesn’t modify MBR but only use partition based boot loader.
>
> However the last step couldn’t be done because EasyBCD needs to be used
> with administritor rights in Windows. Now I have to uninstall the
> openSUSE system for the moment. (I found much space had been reclaimed
> by the installation of openSUSE)
>
> What do I need to recover the space? Please note that I don’t have
> administrator rights in windows and can’t use “Disk manager” in it.
>
> 2. Similar scenery, I installed Ubuntu in another computer in the
> office with a live USB key. However I couldn’t use EasyBCD in the
> windows system as I didn’t have an administrator account so the machine
> boots directly to Windows unless the live USB is plugged during boot,
> then I could boot the Ubuntu installed on the machine (not my live USB
> system). This wasn’t intended but worked well for the situation, coz the
> Ubuntu system is almost unnoticeable except that you may only find disk
> capacity decrease.
>
> So I wonder how I can install openSUSE like this.
>
> Thanks a lot.
>
>

On 2013-02-07, bonedriven <bonedriven@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> I am installing another OS just to avoid leaving any impact on the
> office pc. These pcs are barely administered and there are far more
> destructive guys who throw everything on their pcs…
>

Ah, now you position is clearer to me!

As recommended above, gparted is your friend. Alternativel, if you
access to a Windows recovery disc and the computer has a suitable drive,
you could use the DISKPART utility to restore to remove new partitions
and extend existing ones.

I’ve used Live openSUSE to deleted the partitions during installation and extended the windows partition, everything is fine now.

I am only learning how to dual boot openSUSE without modifying MBR. Thanks for the link, caf.

Of course you do know you can `acquire’ administrator rights on a
Windows computer using a Live Linux on USB (e.g. Back Track iirc)…

[QUOTE=flymail;2525257]On 2013-02-07, bonedriven <bonedriven@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> I am installing another OS just to avoid leaving any impact on the
> office pc. These pcs are barely administered and there are far more
> destructive guys who throw everything on their pcs…
QUOTE]

Why Install the Linux system?
Why not use OpenSUSE as a USB persistent drive, to separate your ‘own use’ from ‘work computer use’. I assume you can boot from a USB key or CD/DVD to create the USB Linux system. Personally although use OpenSUSE on some machines I only use LIVE KNOPPIX from USB key for using work machines outside MS Wiindows due to its hardward finding capability.