I've done what Roland did when there were "slots" available, i.e., fewer than 4 primary partitions. In the case yesterday, there was a smallish partition 1 (zero if counting from 0) of 200MB, then nearly 200MB for Win7. This we were able to shrink, but could not put a new partition into place (i.e., third partition) because there was a 30G Extended partition as #3 and a special recovery partition at #4. We could not move the 30 G partition down, which I think would have allowed it to be extended and another extended sub-partition there.
It would be a useful service if OCLUG "team" could figure out some nice ways to deal with this, especially if we can come up with scripts/interface to help novices. My current resolution -- I cannot say solution: put Linux on USB (HD or Flash) and boot from it, possibly putting data in the Win7 partition (NTFS) so external drive is read only. Unfortunately, the sub-model my friend bought left out the SD card slot, which would be a nice unobtrusive option. We tested the external solution with an old 40GB drive and a Vantec USB-IDE cable/power supply setup. Works just fine. JN > Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 18:22:51 -0800 (PST) From: R RENAUD > <rjren...@rogers.com> Subject: Re: [OCLUG-Tech] Re: Laptop partitioning To: > linux@lists.oclug.on.ca Message-ID: > <561396.83694...@web88301.mail.re4.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; > charset=iso-8859-1 --- On Tue, 12/1/09, Prof. John C Nash <nas...@uottawa.ca> > wrote: >> > Have been helping a friend with a new >> > Lenovo G550 ... wonderful nasties at >> > Lenovo have put 5 partitions on the drive, plus leaving some >> > unallocated space. >> > >> > As I recall, the structure was >> > >> > 1 MB free unallocated >> > 200 MB NTFS /dev/sda1 >> > 187 GB NTFS /dev/sda2 >> > 30 GB NTFS /dev/sda3 (extended) >> > 30 GB NTFS /dev/sda5 >> > 14.5 GB NTFS /dev/sda4 >> > >> > (with some odd unallocated bits of about 1MB between) >> > >> > This, of course, means that one needs to do some work to >> > set up a Linux partition. On my wife's Asus Eee 1005HA, >> > there were 4 partitions (C: D: >> > recovery and winboost), but D: was empty and same size as >> > C:, so replaced it with Karmic with no fuss. >> > >> > Does anyone have a good strategy for dealing with the >> > Lenovo-style situation, which I fear is more or less a >> > deliberate setup to block dual boot? This might make a very >> > good tutorial / advice topic, and of course be beneficial to >> > the Linux community generally, since many folk are reluctant >> > to go to all-Linux right away. I find they eventually forget >> > how to use Windows once they have Linux, but getting them >> > going means finding convenient ways to set up dual boot. > ... > > I don't think it's just Lenovo. > You mention similar partitions on Asus Eee 1005HA. > > I recently helped someone install Debian Lenny on a Windows Vista > desktop that had similar partitions. > I don't recall the computer manufacturer and unfortunately didn't note > the exact partitions. > > This machine had a large D: that I shrank down using Lenny and > installed Lenny in the room created there and all worked fine. > > roland > _______________________________________________ Linux mailing list Linux@lists.oclug.on.ca http://oclug.on.ca/mailman/listinfo/linux
