Re: Installing debian, dual boot on 1 TB disk?

[ACro <acro@bluebottle.com>]

Quoting Gerald <gcsgcatling@bigpond.com>:

> Andrew,
> I tried to do as you said, I also have windows in a 1TB drive.
> How ever after shrinking win7-64 and installing Linux on the now
> extended partition,
> windows would not boot!!!!
> On re-installing windows, everythig was set back to "normal" ie no
> Linux partition
> just windows.
> Gerald


Gerald,

I'm really sorry for this unsuccessful attempt: it seems that your initial Windows setting is somewhat different from the one I had. You can try the following steps, more respectful toward Windows ;-)

1) Create Windows recovery disks using the Recovery manager utility (you should find it in your Programs).
2) Use the same utility to remove the recovery partitions from your hard disk (don't delete them directly). If only the first recovery partition is removed, that's fine (this still allows you to create an extended partition in the free space).
3) Now, shrink your Windows system partition: use the Windows tool first, which you'll find in the Administration tool's disk manager, and see how much space you can free. If it's enough for you, go ahead with Debian installation. If not, try shrinking it further using Debian installer's partitioning tool (in my case, this didn't corrupt the system). The difference between Windows' and Debian's tool seems to be the following: the first doesn't move the paging and other files, while the second does.
4) Install Debian in the free space, creating *logical* partitions. If your system won't use the whole available space, just create an unused partition to fill the gap: this makes your extended partition to be as large as the free space itself, allowing you to use it all in the future, if needed. Otherwise, the extended partition will stop at the end of your Debian system, making the remaining disk space unusable (if only the first Windows recovery partition was removed), or allowing you to create only one more - primary - partition, instead of more - logical - ones (if both were removed).

Hope this helps, please let me know.

Kind regards,
Andrew

Sorry for double-replying: I forgot to "reply all" for the list.