(OT) Resolved: Windows partition on /dev/sda3 instead of /dev/sda2 on a laptop with Windows Vista
I've learned a few surprising things about Windows that I thought I'd share
with the list.
Computer: Dell Inspiron 1501 with Windows Vista (on which I'm installing
Buster but want to keep Windows to update my Garmin GPS once or twice a year).
I was surprised to find two partitions formatted as HPFS/NTFS/exFAT (dev/sda2
and dev/sda3) (in addition to what I guess is a Dell recovery or utility
partition on /dev/sda1). And then more surprised to find that, after I
installed Buster and set up <darn>, that Windows was (apparently, I thought)
booting from /dev/sda3.
I didn't know why there were two NTFS partitions, nor why Windows booted from
the 2nd one (I assumed (I know) that maybe the second NTFS partition was drive
D: and set up for what I call "real user data" (things like photos, files, that
the user creates or acquires).
(I almost wiped out /dev/sda3 to make that into a swap partition, but
fortunately dug a little deeper -- it turned out that /dev/sda2 is a Windows
recovery partition, and /dev/sda3 is really the partition which boots Windows.
I plan to reformat /dev/sda2 and make it into a swap partition.
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