On 10/12/2010 2:54 PM, Ogya Chief wrote:
Hi All, I have just bought a pc with Windows 7 pre-installed and I want to partition and install debian on the drive. If I use the debian installer's partitioner, what precautions do I have to take in order not to damage the Windows partition? Kind regards, Ogya
If you care about Windows 7 at all (e.g., for playing games) you should back up the Win 7 installation completely before starting. How you go about it depends on your new machine. If it came with recovery options, you should investigate them. With the Ultimate edition, Win 7 comes with a good backup program, you can use that. Otherwise, you can look to the various alternatives for backing up.
But I urge you to use something. Most of the programs, free and non-free, work properly to shrink a partition, but it is easy to commit a user error and wipe things out completely.
If it were me, I would shrink (resize) the partition first, before running the Debian installer. That is, take it in reversible stages. This is a matter of taste. It isn't strictly necessary.