Creating Partitions in Vista

[Nwabunnia]

I want to create about 2 more partitions in my PC. It's an HP dc7700 with Core 2 Duo, 1 gig RAM and 160 gig HD. I currently use Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and I installed XP on it but I still have strong reservations about Virtual PC hence I want to do a physical installation of XP in another partition. How do I create the partition?

Secondly, the PC came with a recovery CD so is it safe for me to delete the partition named "HP_RECOVERY". I think it is just occupying space and may not be useful again. I may be wrong hence I'd appreciate some expert opinions.

[Paul Komski]

Dont delete the recovery partition unless you have the recovery also on CDs or DVDs and can have a way to restore/recover from them.

If you are going to play around with partitions then do ensure you have any important data backed up first. There would be nothing to stop you imaging both the HP_RECOVERY partition and the Vista partition to DVDs or an external drive - if you do that you can certainly get back to where you are now.

I would use BiNG (in my sig) or PM or GParted to non-destructively resize the Vista partition and then create a new partition in preparation for WinXP.

You can then install WinXP from its CD but this will lose the boot menu for Vista. However if you grab Vista Boot Pro (http://www.vistabootpro.org/) you can use it to rebuild a dual boot menu from within the new installation of WinXP.

The alternative is to create a new primary partition or hard drive for Vista plus a new small primary FAT partition and install a boot manager (such as BiNG or XOSL) using the MBR and that FAT partition to organise the multiboot menu.

[Nwabunnia]

Dont delete the recovery partition unless you have the recovery also on CDs or DVDs and can have a way to restore/recover from them.

I do. I have a recovery DVD so is it safe to delete? I'm only looking at freeing up hard disk space.

The alternative is to create a new primary partition or hard drive for Vista plus a new small primary FAT partition and install a boot manager (such as BiNG or XOSL) using the MBR and that FAT partition to organise the multiboot menu.

Too technical:confused: I dont think I know much about MBR and would not want to mess up the system beyond repair. Think I'll try the first option first and see how it turns out. Thanks Paul, for replying so quickly.

[Nwabunnia]

Okay, Paul, I used the first method (i.e. using BiNG to resize and partition). I've created 3 additional partitions (all FAT32). Tried installing Ubuntu on one partition but couldn't. Got an error message like "file system not supported" or something to that effect - can't remember the exact error message.

When I tried installing XP, the installation disc did not even boot all. Just booted Vista without showing the XP installation menu.

I'd appreciate your help on this Paul. Thanks.

[Paul Komski]

Tried installing Ubuntu on one partition but couldn't.I find it best to create no partitions in advance for Ubuntu and other distros. Just have adequate unallocated space and Ubuntu will utilise it appropriately.

When I tried installing XP, the installation disc did not even boot all.Did you watch the menus to press any key to boot from the CD and double check the system is set to boot from the CD or use the F12 menu to boot to the CD. If all that fails then the CD may be bad of course.

[Nwabunnia]

I find it best to create no partitions in advance for Ubuntu and other distros. Just have adequate unallocated space and Ubuntu will utilise it appropriately.

Did you watch the menus to press any key to boot from the CD and double check the system is set to boot from the CD or use the F12 menu to boot to the CD. If all that fails then the CD may be bad of course.

Was able to instal Ubuntu. Used the partition creation option/tool that is bundled with it, to create an extended partition then created 2 partitions from the extended partition. Installed Ubuntu fine but now I can't access Vista - boots into Ubuntu directly.

Used setup to boot from XP CD as u advised but could not instal. Got an error message that no physical hard disk was found. If I could instal XP, I'd be able to use VistaBootPro to boot Vista but I can't.

In Ubuntu, I can see all the partitions and can even see all the folders (everything) in the drive with Vista. It is named "sda1" by ubuntu. Some new folders are also there like "boot", "System Volume Information", "SwSetup", etc.

Please Paul tell me what to do cos I'm afraid I've f***ed up my laptop beyond redermption. Thanks.

[Nwabunnia]

sorry for the double posts

[Paul Komski]

Are you sure that ubuntu gives you no option to boot Windows. If not its menu.lst file should be editable to enable this.

I would have installed WinXP prior to Ubuntu - because now the GRUB bootloader is occupying the MBR.

You can remove GRUB (which will do away with booting to ubuntu) by running fixmbr from the WinXP installation CD (and probably still the same for Vista installation CD but I haven't yet done it). Then if necessary you may also need to mark the vista partition as active using BiNG.

sda1 means the first primary partition (referenced from the first partition table in the MBR) on the hard drive using the Linux conventions and is normal.

[Nwabunnia]

I've seen the menu.lst file in the /boot/grub directory. The problem is that I can't edit it cos it's marked as "read only". I guess I have to log in as root but when I was installing it, I didn't see any option of creating a root account - as is the case with Red Hat.

So how do I go about editing the file with this restriction. If I am able to do so, I think I have an idea of how to get round my problem.

[Paul Komski]

sudo from a console or have a read of - http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-31053.html

[Paul Komski]

BTW - you don't need to logon as root to get root privileges under ubuntu. Your main user password will give you root privileges if you enter
sudo <command>
at a console prompt.

[Nwabunnia]

Sorry I was away for sometime, Paul. I was able to use BiNG to delete the partitions I created leaving the original one with the Vista. So now I'm back to where I was before the ubuntu installation.

Really, I would like to have one of the Linux distros on my system but it seems they are all proplematic and too technical to install. If there's any one that's not too techy and difficult to install, do let me know.

Thanks a lot:)

[Paul Komski]

Normally if you have a windows installation running and adequate unallocated space (6 to 10 gig should be fine) then ubuntu normally installs and sets up a multi-boot menu.

The alternative is to create a small primary FAT partition (about 56MB more than adequate) in readiness for a boot manager to be installed later. Then install ubuntu into the remaining unallocated space but ensure that you edit/customise the installation so that you install GRUB to the root partition and not to the MBR.

Next install your boot manager (eg BiNG or XOSL onto the MBR/EMBR in conjunction with the FAT partition made earlier and BiNG would normally find both the Vista and the Ubuntu partitions. If not you set them up manually and its not that hard at all to do. This allows you to treat Vista and Ubuntu as two much more separate entities.

I think it best to not try to partition in readiness for ubuntu but let it do its own thing.

From the ubuntu site in more detail there are other ways of doing this http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-260772.html but the most relevant bit is:

Step 10:
Install Ubuntu onto whichever partition you prefer (note the partition that you choose to format and mount as /). Go through the typical installation procedure until you reach the point of installing the boot manager (grub). Instead of installing to the MBR, choose to install grub onto the root partition (/dev/hd*whatever you decided to format as /*). For example, I installed grub on /dev/hda6, the same as my root partition for Ubuntu.