Hello,
I would like to install 11.3 with Win 7. I have Win 7 installed on the first partition of two 1Tb drives (4 partitions total on drive a). I used computer management to carve out a 50 gig piece of the second drive and defragged, I did not format the 50 gig piece. 11.3 seems to only want to install on the first drive with Win 7, it will not recognize B to install at all and does not show the un-formatted 50 gig piece. Any help would be appreciated.
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1 992+ 42 SFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 1 13 102400 42 SFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 * 13 7649 61335552 42 SFS
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 7649 121602 915322584 42 SFS
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 1 992+ 42 SFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb2 * 1 115227 925554688 42 SFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb3 115227 121602 51205848 42 SFS
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
Thank you for the reply, I think I did what you suggested or at least part of it. I went back into W7 and assigned a partition with no drive letter to my 50 gig piece and formatted. I went back to install from the KDE 64 live disk and it says in red no automatic proposals available (or something like that). I can add another hard drive would that be a solution? I have installed Suse in the past and but never with Win 7, they do not seem to play well together. New fdisk -l below:
linux@linux:~> su
linux:/home/linux # fdisk -l
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1 992+ 42 SFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 1 13 102400 42 SFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 * 13 7649 61335552 42 SFS
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 7649 121602 915322584 42 SFS
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 1 992+ 42 SFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb2 * 1 115227 925554688 42 SFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb3 115227 121602 51205848 42 SFS
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
sdb3 is still listed a SFS
I have to assume this is the problem. It’s a nasty load of partitioning too. All done in windows I take it?
Try Parted Magic and see if you can delete sdb3. It should leave blank space, now create a extended partition in all that space. And create a swap partition of say 2GB, a / (root) partition of say 15GB and all the rest as /home Downloads
Here is how partitioning should look:
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20673 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x93900d8b
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 9017 68163763+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 9017 20674 88124527 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 9017 9437 3172806 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 9437 12212 20980858+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 12212 17065 36692428+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 17065 20674 27278338+ 83 Linux
Basically Suse does not know how to handle MS SFS partitons. So you will have to explicitly tell the installer what to do. The problem is that Windows is installed in Dynamic partitions. Linux thinks you are using Secure File System partitions because there is an apparent conflict in the number ID between the two. Also because Dynamic FS can be linked and Linux can not use it because of Software patents, Linux can not modify change or resize them. This is another pox MS had perpetrated. Get rid of the Dynamic partitions in Windows and all will be fine.
Thanks for this nice explanation @gogalthorp
I wonder if Parted Magic can delete it?
Most likely. The problem is that a given partition may be associated with other partitions. This is MS version of LVM. So deleting one may break another one.
Yea all done in Win 7 :(. I partition for catastrophy and image all my partitions. 1 for the OS, 1 for games, 1 for downloads and then a separate disk for backups. Outta curiosity is that bad, I thought it was good but I am no pro. The backup disk is where I wanted to put suse but it does not recognize anywhere to put it. I am DL’ing Parted Magic now and try to do as you said. I am a little unclear on the ridding of Dynamic Partitions. I think I am clear on what caf4926 has recommended. Thanks for your help.
If you actually have another HD you could add. Perhaps this might be prudent. As much as I personally dislike M$, I know others rely on it. It would be a pity to nuke your install.
I have another HD and lots of room in the tower. I really do not want to completely bork my box and have to start over. What are the odds it will not recognize it either? It was in an XP box.
If your second drive is a backup image of the first changing partitions on it will not work since when you image the main drive again it will over write any changes on the backup thus nuking Linux.
Dynamic partitions may be associated with other partition to extend them and make multiple partitions look like one large partition. We have no way of knowing if any partition is associated only Windows can tell. And you can only change things from Windows. I don’t know if you can change a Dynamic back to a NTFS or not even from Windows. Also there may be dual booting issues since the chain from Grub may not work with these non standard partitions. YAMLI (Yet Another MS Lock In)
This is confidence inspiring. M$ & Norton must be cut from the same cloth, anytime you use either you are locked into a lifetime of grief. My second HD is an 80 gig drive that may have a suse partition and an XP partition or just XP partitions (I don’t know which I pulled). I really do not have time to completely rebuild my system this weekend. Is it foolhardy to proceed with the other drive? If I install the other drive should I still use PM? Thanks for your help.
The discussion to use Dynamic FS (With MS encouragement ) is where the lock in is. If the partitions where formated regular NTFS this would be no problem at all.
So sounds like I should take the time to rebuild and format my disks to NTFS and then copy my images back in place. THEN I can go back to being a happy suse user. So apparently my error was in letting Win 7 decide what file system to format the disks in.
) is where the lock in is. If the partitions where formated regular NTFS this would be no problem at all.