Re: Debian installer not finding free space
On 06/14/2017 07:00 PM, David DLC wrote:
http://imgur.com/a/o83Qd
It looks like your 500GB drive uses the GPT partitioning scheme, and the
Windows C:\ file system corresponds to partition Number 4. You also
have partition numbers 5 (867 MB) and 6 (21,705 MB), and then a little
free space (~4 MB).
When you shrank the C:\ file system and partition 4, it opened a hole
between partition numbers 4 and 5. While this is listed as "Free Space"
by parted, I believe it is inaccessible to partitioning tools because,
by convention (de facto standard?), partitions have monotonically
increasing sector numbers -- e.g. the First and Last LBA's of partition
4 must be greater than the LBA's for partition 3 and less than the LBA's
for partition 5. Therefore, the tools won't create a partition 7 that
lies between partitions 4 and 5.
Theoretically, it should be possible to delete the partition table
entries for partitions 5 and 6, and then create new entries for
partitions 5, 6, and 7 using the exact sector numbers so that the new
partition 5 lines up with the free space, the new partition 6 lines up
with the old partition 5, and the new partition 7 lines up with the old
partition 6. But you would need to disconnect whatever in the firmware
and/or Windows uses partitions 5 and 6 beforehand, and then
reconnect them to partitions 6 and 7 afterwards. Then, once you install
Debian in new partition 5, you'll need to run the multi-boot bootloader
gauntlet.
I prefer KISS. That's why I said:
On 06/08/2017 07:10 PM, David Christensen wrote:
I would suggest using a 2.5" HDD/SSD for Windows and using an mSATA
SSD for Debian. If your computer has both and the mSATA device is
configured as a cache, you will want to reconfigure the firmware
and/or Windows to stop using the cache before you install Debian.
It looks like you also have a 32 GB Intel Fast Flash drive, with ~8 GB
partitioned and ~24 GB free space (for over-provisioning, see [1]).
This surely looks like a Windows cache device.
Unfortunately, such devices usually are not bootable. If you configure
Windows to stop using it, you could replace it with an mSATA SSD that is
bootable, put Debian on that, and then configure your CMOS setup and/or
use your POST hotkeys to select which drive to boot.
If you get a large mSATA SSD, you could include partitions for:
1. A cache for Windows.
2. A lowest-common-denominator file system (such as FAT32 or NTFS) that
can be shared between Windows, Debian, etc..
3. Debian.
4. Other operating systems.
Be sure to leave a good chunk of free space at the end for
over-provisioning.
David
[1]
http://www.seagate.com/tech-insights/ssd-over-provisioning-benefits-master-ti/
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