Understood. I'm the type that will buy the full version of Windows even if I hate it, and erase diagnostic partitions if it's available on a bootable CD. This was the case with my Ultra-20. I'm still able to shrink/grow with two operating systems, but I can imagine from your detail about how stupid it handles diagnostic/recovery partitions. One might conclude it's those being the problem, they aren't made right in the first place, it's all imaged on. I just don't think the utilities are helpful enough to warrant keeping them.
Of course there's people that won't spend more than a grand on a computer and are cheap enough to go with Vista basic and XP home, in return getting a shiny gimped feature-set to fit their cheap attitude toward technology. These same people complain more about things breaking more often than the technically inclined, because they're obviously morons when it comes to choosing quality hardware, which is the main reason Windows is hated so much, because it's too supportive and there's millions of cheap asses out there buying hardware with flaky sensors and oems that don't update drivers, even for Windows when they should. This is why I chose Intel or NVIDIA chipsets, NVIDIA graphics, AMD or Intel Core series processors, and Maxtor or Hitachi hard disks when possible. Can't be so picky on notebooks, unless you acquire an ASUS barebones notebook and put in what you want, although you still have to deal with heat issues and ugly look of the darned thing because you refused to go with something of equal power due to brand loyalty. In my recent experience, with my first AMD64 system, being an Ultra-20 large configuration, my MacBook Pro's T7700 Intel Core 2 processor actually is identical in performance to the 1218 series in the Ultra-20, minus independent L2 cache. Hypertransport for day to day activities doesn't make up for clock or design laziness. Not that it isn't a good system or processor, but my notebook actually keeps up with it, all in a 1" enclosure, which my Ultra-20 omits 3x more heat. James On Oct 15, 2007, at 5:06 PM, Neal Pollack wrote: > James Cornell wrote: >> Partly wrong there. It's how Solaris handles modification of the >> disk partitions. This has been fixed in ON 70. I use Vista x64 >> and OpenSolaris with ON 75 without issue. It's completely >> transparent. Regular Solaris however doesn't like bootmgr. The >> hacks are to make duplicates of the current mbrs of each system, >> use bootmgr to boot Solaris. I don't see any misalignment, if >> there is it's due to the ability to shrink/grow NTFS without 3rd >> party programs in Vista. > > I am glad you were lucky and found a working situation. > I am indeed aware of the ON build 70 putback, and that is not the > complete story on Vista. > > Here is what we find in our lab (up to and including SNV build 75); > > - Multiple brands/models of new vista laptop fail to shrink Vista > with the built-in utility. > - Many of these models have the entire disk filled with 3 > partitions, a diagnostic, vista itself, and > a recovery partition. MS have supplied tools to the > manufacturers, based on our talks with them, > that align all these partitions to start and end on the same > cylinder and head, but differ by 1 sector. > - Since many (not all) of these have failed to shrink NTFS using > the Vista built-in, we are forced to > try 3rd party commercial and open source software. > - All 3rd-party software tried, including partition magic, paragon > partition mgr, Acronis, etc, > immediately complain of overlapping partitions and exit to avoid > data loss (liability). > > - At this time, the only work-around I have discovered for this > specific type of situation is to: > 0. Make your recovery media, because you are about to delete > the recovery partition. > 1 Use Ranish partition mgr to edit partition table, and zero > out the diagnostic and recovery > parititions. This leaves one partition, Vista, arguably > misaligned still (as far as the rest of the > industry is concered, but not M$). > 2. Use Paragon Partition Mgr, it starts, complains about > misalignment, and then since > the other overlapping partitions are no longer there, it > comes up and works. > 3. Use Paragon to MOVE and SHRINK the NTFS partition for > Vista. It now comes > out smaller *AND* aligned on cylinder boundaries. > 4. Optional, run the recovery media to fix the boot files/ > signature, since sometimes when you > shrink/move vista, it no longer boots. > > At this point, since there is > > a. free space > and > b. a NTFS partition aligned on cylinder boundaries > > then all 3rd party partition and fdisk software now agrees to > start and add partitions for Solaris and Linux, if needed. > At this point, I've installed Solaris mbr and used Solaris grub to > boot vista, or Solaris, or Linux. And with no secondary vista boot > menu. > > FYI, > > Neal Pollack > >> >> Core Duo is not 64-bit, Core 2 Duo is 64-bit. I have a 3rd rev >> MacBook Pro with Santa Rosa Core 2, and it runs other operating >> systems in either 32-bit or 64-bit mode, of course dependent on >> drivers, which are all available, since it uses a NVIDIA Geforce >> 8600 GT, and Intel 865 chipset. (These are like others 1440x900, >> but they use LED backlighting instead of mercury cathodes, >> brighter, less failures) You're hard pressed to find any notebook >> with 1680x1050 which is not 17". >> >> I believe the ASUS C90 would be a better fit, and it's Core 2 >> also. AMD Turion's have less power management features, and their >> mobile line is gimped compared to their desktop/server >> processors. I have an Ultra-20 M2 with Opteron 1218, and it's >> nice, but I've had bad experience with AMD notebooks over the >> years and refuse to buy them because they generally omit more >> heat, are slower, and not cheaper than Intel ones. AMD since the >> get-go of 64-bit computing hasn't focused on mobiles, this is why >> Apple didn't even consider them (Plus they can't handle the >> demand), they basically try fitting a square object in a round >> hole to retrofit AMD's in notebooks. Intel has a much large >> company and more money to make it work right. >> >> James >> On Oct 15, 2007, at 4:05 PM, Neal Pollack wrote: >> >>> Mike DeMarco wrote: >>>> ... >>>> >>>> One more Question: Are the core Duo's Full 64bit and able to run >>>> dual boot Solaris and Windows XP pro? >>>> >>> >>> Yes. On multiple brand of Core2Duo laptops, we are dual and >>> tripple booting >>> Solaris, Vista, Win XP, Linux. >>> >>> (Vista has it's own specially engineered annoyances as a futile >>> attempt >>> to keep people from adding extra OS types to the hardware. But >>> alas, >>> M$ failed at that also. It's a little extra work, but you can >>> "adjust" the >>> vista partition to play nice with Solaris and Linux. There are >>> blogs >>> about it, or others on this list will share how M$ tried to mis- >>> align >>> vista partitions so that every third party partition program on >>> the market >>> would fail, complaining about overlapping partitions. But again, >>> that >>> can be dealt with.) >>> >>> Neal >>> >>>> Thanks for everyones input >>>> <mike> >>>> >>>> >>>> This message posted from opensolaris.org >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> laptop-discuss mailing list >>>> laptop-discuss at opensolaris.org >>>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> laptop-discuss mailing list >>> laptop-discuss at opensolaris.org >> >
