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Re: Partitioning gpt disk



* On 2014 26 Nov 00:01 -0600, Rusi Mody wrote:
> Trying to setup linux on lenovo laptop.
> I find that its gpt as expected and there are some 5 partitions
> (as shown by compmgmt in windows)
> 
> | recovery      | 1G   |
> | EFI           | 260M |
> | OEM           | 1G   |
> | Windows8 (C:) | 424G |
> | Lenovo   (D:) | 25G  |
> | Recovery      | 14G  |
> 
> Clearly its the windows (C:) that needs to be shrunk for the linux.

I bought a new to me Lenovo desktop that has a similar partitioning
scheme. except for the D: partition.  I used the gparted live CD from:

http://gparted.org/livecd.php

and carved out my desired Debian partitions from the large C: partition
and left all the other partitions alone since the computer is still
under warranty.  I never booted Windows past the activation screen as
once I presented with that, I rebooted with gparted live and was on my
way.

> Q.1  In the past (mbr) Ive invaribly found that adding a partition
> in the middle causes all sorts of trouble.
> 
> How is it with gpt?

So far no issues here although it seems that the update-grub script may
offer some sort of complaint once in a while.  I've not had any problems
booting into Debian with this arrangement.

> Q.2 There are some stories that modern disks need stricter alignment
> restrictions than the classic 512 byte block
> eg http://askubuntu.com/questions/314262/partition-alignment-confusion
> 
> Whats the current 'best-practice' for optimal alignment of partitions?
> [Given that windows seems to be more uptodate than parted on this I am
> assuming that making all partitions in windows and then installing
> linux should be foolproof.  However its a bit of a headache jumping
> between windows and linux]

I went straight for the gparted live CD which is a minimal desktop
version of the Debian live CD.  I used the amd64 version and it worked
very well.  As I recall, I chose to align on cylinders when setting up
the partitions in gparted.  Perhaps this was a mistake but it seems to
be working just fine for me.

- Nate

-- 

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all
possible worlds.  The pessimist fears this is true."

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