[opensuse] Dual booting with Windows - 2 partitions on a single drive
Hi, I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop, which is running Windows Vista Home Premium. The machine has a single drive, 250Gb. I would like to install openSUSE 11.2 alongside the Windows OS, so that I can dual boot, but I would like to hear of other people who have already done this without any mishaps. Or maybe I want to hear from those who did have mishaps, and how they overcame them. I have done the process of installing linux after Windows before, and YaST looked after me all the way, but about six months ago I tried to impress a friend, and ended up with an unbootable machine - the BIOS reported 'no operating system found'. I know that both operating systems were installed in their respective partitions, and the problem was something to do with grub writing into the MBR, which upset Windows Vista :( I have googled to a few forums, where I have found howtos, and I have read the HowTo on the openSUSE site which describes installing openSUSE alongside Windows, but onto separate hard drives. Any pointers would be welcome. Meanwhile, I'm defragmenting Windows, in preparation for resizing its partition. Y'see, I'm committed ;) TIA, Bob -- Registered Linux User #463880 FSFE Member #1300 GPG-FP: A6C1 457C 6DBA B13E 5524 F703 D12A FB79 926B 994E openSUSE 11.2, Kernel 2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop, KDE 4.3.3 Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz, 4GB DDR RAM, nVidia GeForce 9200GS -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 29/12/09 20:57, Bob Williams wrote:
Hi,
I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop, which is running Windows Vista Home Premium. The machine has a single drive, 250Gb. I would like to install openSUSE 11.2 alongside the Windows OS, so that I can dual boot, but I would like to hear of other people who have already done this without any mishaps. Or maybe I want to hear from those who did have mishaps, and how they overcame them.
I have done the process of installing linux after Windows before, and YaST looked after me all the way, but about six months ago I tried to impress a friend, and ended up with an unbootable machine - the BIOS reported 'no operating system found'. I know that both operating systems were installed in their respective partitions, and the problem was something to do with grub writing into the MBR, which upset Windows Vista :(
I have googled to a few forums, where I have found howtos, and I have read the HowTo on the openSUSE site which describes installing openSUSE alongside Windows, but onto separate hard drives.
Any pointers would be welcome. Meanwhile, I'm defragmenting Windows, in preparation for resizing its partition. Y'see, I'm committed ;)
TIA,
Bob
This question has been asked not too long ago - and solution discussed. I do not remember what the answer is (I don't use Vista) but if you look in the archive you will see the solution (and possibly before someone answers here because of the time of the year). BC -- If you don't succeed you run the risk of failure. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Tuesday 29 Dec 2009 10:36:43 Basil Chupin wrote:
On 29/12/09 20:57, Bob Williams wrote:
Hi,
I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop, which is running Windows Vista Home Premium. The machine has a single drive, 250Gb. I would like to install openSUSE 11.2 alongside the Windows OS, so that I can dual boot, but I would like to hear of other people who have already done this without any mishaps. Or maybe I want to hear from those who did have mishaps, and how they overcame them.
I have done the process of installing linux after Windows before, and YaST looked after me all the way, but about six months ago I tried to impress a friend, and ended up with an unbootable machine - the BIOS reported 'no operating system found'. I know that both operating systems were installed in their respective partitions, and the problem was something to do with grub writing into the MBR, which upset Windows Vista :(
I have googled to a few forums, where I have found howtos, and I have read the HowTo on the openSUSE site which describes installing openSUSE alongside Windows, but onto separate hard drives.
Any pointers would be welcome. Meanwhile, I'm defragmenting Windows, in preparation for resizing its partition. Y'see, I'm committed ;)
TIA,
Bob
This question has been asked not too long ago - and solution discussed. I do not remember what the answer is (I don't use Vista) but if you look in the archive you will see the solution (and possibly before someone answers here because of the time of the year).
BC
Many thanks, Basil. I think I've found my answer at http://forums.opensuse.org/install-boot-login/386603-fixing-vista-multiboot- opensuse.html Bob -- Registered Linux User #463880 FSFE Member #1300 GPG-FP: A6C1 457C 6DBA B13E 5524 F703 D12A FB79 926B 994E openSUSE 11.2, Kernel 2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop, KDE 4.3.3 Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz, 4GB DDR RAM, nVidia GeForce 9200GS -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 29/12/09 22:56, Bob Williams wrote:
On Tuesday 29 Dec 2009 10:36:43 Basil Chupin wrote:
On 29/12/09 20:57, Bob Williams wrote:
Hi,
I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop, which is running Windows Vista Home Premium. The machine has a single drive, 250Gb. I would like to install openSUSE 11.2 alongside the Windows OS, so that I can dual boot, but I would like to hear of other people who have already done this without any mishaps. Or maybe I want to hear from those who did have mishaps, and how they overcame them.
I have done the process of installing linux after Windows before, and YaST looked after me all the way, but about six months ago I tried to impress a friend, and ended up with an unbootable machine - the BIOS reported 'no operating system found'. I know that both operating systems were installed in their respective partitions, and the problem was something to do with grub writing into the MBR, which upset Windows Vista :(
I have googled to a few forums, where I have found howtos, and I have read the HowTo on the openSUSE site which describes installing openSUSE alongside Windows, but onto separate hard drives.
Any pointers would be welcome. Meanwhile, I'm defragmenting Windows, in preparation for resizing its partition. Y'see, I'm committed ;)
TIA,
Bob
This question has been asked not too long ago - and solution discussed. I do not remember what the answer is (I don't use Vista) but if you look in the archive you will see the solution (and possibly before someone answers here because of the time of the year).
BC
Many thanks, Basil. I think I've found my answer at
http://forums.opensuse.org/install-boot-login/386603-fixing-vista-multiboot- opensuse.html
Bob
Good! :-) BC -- If you don't succeed you run the risk of failure. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 2009/12/29 06:56 (GMT-0500) Bob Williams composed:
http://forums.opensuse.org/install-boot-login/386603-fixing-vista-multiboot-...
You can reduce the likelihood of unexpected trouble by first, before doing anything else except backing up, using the tool built into Vista/W7 for resizing the system partition to make space for Linux on the HD. -- " We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion." John Adams, 2nd US President Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Bob Williams wrote:
Hi,
I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop, which is running Windows Vista Home Premium. The machine has a single drive, 250Gb. I would like to install openSUSE 11.2 alongside the Windows OS, so that I can dual boot, but I would like to hear of other people who have already done this without any mishaps. Or maybe I want to hear from those who did have mishaps, and how they overcame them.
I have done the process of installing linux after Windows before, and YaST looked after me all the way, but about six months ago I tried to impress a friend, and ended up with an unbootable machine - the BIOS reported 'no operating system found'. I know that both operating systems were installed in their respective partitions, and the problem was something to do with grub writing into the MBR, which upset Windows Vista :(
I have googled to a few forums, where I have found howtos, and I have read the HowTo on the openSUSE site which describes installing openSUSE alongside Windows, but onto separate hard drives.
Any pointers would be welcome. Meanwhile, I'm defragmenting Windows, in preparation for resizing its partition. Y'see, I'm committed ;)
When I got my ThinkPad a few years ago, I repartioned the drive so I could have both Linux and XP on it. I also created a FAT32 partition, which I moved the "My Documents" folder to. This allows me to read & write documents from either OS. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:08:45 James Knott wrote:
Bob Williams wrote:
Hi,
I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop, which is running Windows Vista Home Premium. The machine has a single drive, 250Gb. I would like to install openSUSE 11.2 alongside the Windows OS, so that I can dual boot, but I would like to hear of other people who have already done this without any mishaps. Or maybe I want to hear from those who did have mishaps, and how they overcame them.
I have done the process of installing linux after Windows before, and YaST looked after me all the way, but about six months ago I tried to impress a friend, and ended up with an unbootable machine - the BIOS reported 'no operating system found'. I know that both operating systems were installed in their respective partitions, and the problem was something to do with grub writing into the MBR, which upset Windows Vista :(
I have googled to a few forums, where I have found howtos, and I have read the HowTo on the openSUSE site which describes installing openSUSE alongside Windows, but onto separate hard drives.
Any pointers would be welcome. Meanwhile, I'm defragmenting Windows, in preparation for resizing its partition. Y'see, I'm committed ;)
When I got my ThinkPad a few years ago, I repartioned the drive so I could have both Linux and XP on it. I also created a FAT32 partition, which I moved the "My Documents" folder to. This allows me to read & write documents from either OS.
...which was necessary then but isn't so necessary now with nfts-3g having pretty much full read/write support for ntfs partitions. I have dual-boot setups on 2 laptops and on both I can mount and access the ntfs windows partitions as easily as native ext3 partitions. Once upon a time, if you wrote to the nfts partition under Linux and then booted Windows, chkdsk would run at boot time and insist on checking the "unclean" disk. I haven't seen that happen since moving to ntfs-3g. Using the Ext3-IFS for Windows I can also access my ext3 partitions natively from within WinXP on both machines too. Cheers, Rodney. -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au =================================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
James Knott said the following on 12/29/2009 08:38 AM:
When I got my ThinkPad a few years ago, I repartioned the drive so I could have both Linux and XP on it. I also created a FAT32 partition, which I moved the "My Documents" folder to. This allows me to read & write documents from either OS.
The idea of having /home and "user's stuff" on a separate partition from "the system" goes way, way back; I recall seeing it in default installs in the late 1970s and early 1980s on UNIX V6 and V7 systems, where the /usr was more comprehensive, before we had a /home. Where possible we put that on a separate spindle. Why Windows does not ship with a disk ready partitioned for C: (the system) and D: (the user data) I don't know. The people I know at HP and IBM ranging from senior managers down to salesmen - the non-techie/non-geek people - have all done that or requested it done for their machines and laptops. At the very last it simplifies backups! While I strongly advocate Linux I've also cleaned up or installed Windows for friends, and set up a D: -for data partition. When I explain why I never seem to get an argument, rather I get asked why Microsoft doesn't do that already since its so obviously sensible. Perhaps that's a crack in the wall of Microsoft into which Linux can move ... -- Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty. -- Albert Einstein -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:48:25 Anton Aylward wrote:
James Knott said the following on 12/29/2009 08:38 AM:
When I got my ThinkPad a few years ago, I repartioned the drive so I could have both Linux and XP on it. I also created a FAT32 partition, which I moved the "My Documents" folder to. This allows me to read & write documents from either OS.
The idea of having /home and "user's stuff" on a separate partition from "the system" goes way, way back; I recall seeing it in default installs in the late 1970s and early 1980s on UNIX V6 and V7 systems, where the /usr was more comprehensive, before we had a /home. Where possible we put that on a separate spindle.
Why Windows does not ship with a disk ready partitioned for C: (the system) and D: (the user data) I don't know. The people I know at HP and IBM ranging from senior managers down to salesmen - the non-techie/non-geek people - have all done that or requested it done for their machines and laptops. At the very last it simplifies backups!
While I strongly advocate Linux I've also cleaned up or installed Windows for friends, and set up a D: -for data partition. When I explain why I never seem to get an argument, rather I get asked why Microsoft doesn't do that already since its so obviously sensible. Perhaps that's a crack in the wall of Microsoft into which Linux can move ...
I couldn't agree more. I do exactly the same with any 'doze boxes that I set up for myself or others and I keep most of my Linux file systems separate too. My desktop machine has /, /boot, /var, /usr, /usr/local, /root and /home all on separate partitions (/home is on a RAID-1 volume) and additional /data and /downloads filesystems too. Makes sharing files via samba much easier for a start, not to mention simplifying backups etc. OK, so that example is probably a bit extreme - on the laptops I only have /home and / on separate partitions, but that way if I do need to do a full reinstall I don't lose any data from /home (I just tell the installer to leave that partition alone and don't reformat it). -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au =================================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Rodney Baker said the following on 12/29/2009 09:32 AM:
I couldn't agree more. I do exactly the same with any 'doze boxes that I set up for myself or others and I keep most of my Linux file systems separate too.
My desktop machine has /, /boot, /var, /usr, /usr/local, /root and /home all on separate partitions (/home is on a RAID-1 volume) and additional /data and /downloads filesystems too. Makes sharing files via samba much easier for a start, not to mention simplifying backups etc.
OK, so that example is probably a bit extreme - on the laptops I only have /home and / on separate partitions, but that way if I do need to do a full reinstall I don't lose any data from /home (I just tell the installer to leave that partition alone and don't reformat it).
No, I don't think that's extreme. Laptops now have more disk capacity than many corporate desktops I encounter - well mine does, even my old Presario! I'm seeing new laptops in the $600-$800 range with 500G of disk. That, 4M of memory, good sound systems and wide-screen/hi-res graphics and they really are "desktop replacements". Netbooks (with 160G of disk!) are filling the niche laptops used to occupy, but with better battery lifetimes. So, there you are with your 80-120-160-250-320-500G laptop. You have absolutely no reason NOT to install LVM since right now you probably can;t figure out what to do with all that space, and create / /boot outside LVM, make life easy /home /usr /usr/share /usr/src /tmp /opt /local I also split out some library and development libraries that are under /usr/lib onto their own partitions. I have /opt and /local so as to keep / reasonably "pure". I'm not convinced its worth having a separate /root since there's so little there. I rarely use root; I use sudo or kdesu instead. I'd love to be able to separate out /etc and /lib. I then create some partitions that go under /home/anton. Having these makes backups easier. * mymedia * mydocuments * mygraphics * myprojects * myboojums * mybanderanchi I've also found that I need to create more partitions as time goes by. Just recently I've created a partition for ~/.thunderbird since it was storing so much. If anyone knows how to purge old data, not least of all "News and Blogs", I'd be interested. Merely deleting files seems to upset T'Bird3. Why more? Slice and Dice to make backups easier. I normally use ReiserFS since I find that I now only need to grow the partitions but also in a few cases have had to shrink them. I've never had any problems with ReiserFS. If you are on a hardwired desktop and part of a network of such machines, you might consider sharing /usr/share across the network. And please, please, *please* make /tmp one of the partitions. -- Whitehead's Law: The obvious answer is always overlooked. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:45:00 Anton Aylward wrote: [...]
So, there you are with your 80-120-160-250-320-500G laptop. You have absolutely no reason NOT to install LVM since right now you probably can;t figure out what to do with all that space, and create
Oh, I can figure out exactly what to do with all that space ;-). I have 1x 500GB and 1x 640GB disk in my desktop machine (with /home as a 150GB Raid-1 mdraid volume) and I'm still going to need to add more space. But, I refuse to use LVM after I had an LVM volume irrecoverably corrupted due to a sudden unplanned power outage that even a UPS wouldn't have helped (power supply failure). The LVM volume was completely trashed and unable to be rebuilt. No data was recoverable using dd or any other tools I tried. Since the filesystem inside a vg is dependent on the vg being readable, the system wouldn't even recognise that a filesystem existed on the disk. The only partition that was on that vg was /home, but my backups weren't up to date either (I learned that lesson the hard way - now I do nightly backups to an external storage drive and that has saved me more than once when I've been fiddling...). Anyway, I reformatted the disk and since then I've not touched LVM on Linux and don't intend to. Once bitten... -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au =================================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Rodney Baker said the following on 12/29/2009 10:35 AM:
But, I refuse to use LVM after I had an LVM volume irrecoverably corrupted due to a sudden unplanned power outage that even a UPS wouldn't have helped (power supply failure).
That's a shame. I don't know why you suffered that. I have LVM on my laptop and often loose power when the batter runs out. *CRASH* I've pulled power on a few hangs when the hibernate didn't work properly as well. I also have LVM on the server under my desk and I've pulled power on that few times. I've had to do FSCK a few times. :-) I've never lost a file system (I mostly use ReiserFS) and never ever lost LVM-ness in the six years I've had it running on laptops. You didn't say what date this occurred (version of LVM/FS) or if there was disk damage,or if the problem was really with the partition block I'll have to look sometime to see if LVM is like modern file systems in that it encodes its metadata in more than one place. -- Between the iron gates of fate, The seeds of time were sown, And watered by the deeds of those Who know and who are known; Knowledge is a deadly friend When no one sets the rules. The fate of all mankind I see Is in the hands of fools. - Greg Lake -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:33:35 Anton Aylward wrote:
Rodney Baker said the following on 12/29/2009 10:35 AM:
But, I refuse to use LVM after I had an LVM volume irrecoverably corrupted due to a sudden unplanned power outage that even a UPS wouldn't have helped (power supply failure).
That's a shame. I don't know why you suffered that. I have LVM on my laptop and often loose power when the batter runs out. *CRASH* I've pulled power on a few hangs when the hibernate didn't work properly as well.
I also have LVM on the server under my desk and I've pulled power on that few times.
I've had to do FSCK a few times. :-) I've never lost a file system (I mostly use ReiserFS) and never ever lost LVM-ness in the six years I've had it running on laptops.
You didn't say what date this occurred (version of LVM/FS) or if there was disk damage,or if the problem was really with the partition block [...]
This was around 4-5 years ago - I think I was running FC5 or FC6 at the time (but I really can't remember exactly, it may even have been FC4). There was no physical disk damage, and from memory it was either the first or second physical partition (out of 3 I think) in the vg that was corrupted. I seem to recall that it was the second part, yet LVM would not even try to mount the vg with part of it missing (unlike raid which will mount a partial filesystem in degraded mode, although I'm not sure if that is the case for linear raid). Even an attempt to recreate the vg with exactly the same parameters resulted in 100% loss of data (after I had tried everything else). At least with physical partition, if you delete and then recreate a partition with exactly the same boundaries, as long as nothing has written to the disk locations in the mean time it is possible for the file systems to remain intact. This did not appear to be the case with LVM. Things may have improved somewhat since then, but for mine it has been too risky to try it since the last time. Even on my current setup, I had 3 non-contiguous blocks of free space available that totalled up to around 150GB after I had created all my other partitions. Since I was already using mdraid to do a Raid-0 (mirrored) array for /home, I used it again and added a linear raid array for /downloads (all non-critical data) to utilise the free space. I trust that more than I trust LVM for the same task. -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au =================================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Rodney Baker said the following on 12/29/2009 10:35 AM:
On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:45:00 Anton Aylward wrote: [...]
So, there you are with your 80-120-160-250-320-500G laptop. You have absolutely no reason NOT to install LVM since right now you probably can;t figure out what to do with all that space, and create
Oh, I can figure out exactly what to do with all that space ;-). I have 1x 500GB and 1x 640GB disk in my desktop machine (with /home as a 150GB Raid-1 mdraid volume) and I'm still going to need to add more space.
I did say LAPTOP! I do have a machine under my desk with a couple of 500G drives that acts as 'file server', mail hub, archive, web & information server. All the stuff I don't need to carry out of the office. The LAPTOP is what I need to carry with me. What I might need to carry with me on vacation is yet another matter. If you need to carry with you everything that is "in the office" then perhaps a re-think is in order. So, Rodney, what is on your laptop? How big is the drive there? -- Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles, and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious,and proclaimed as such by those whom the mob adores as the interpreters of nature and the gods. For these men know that once ignorance is put aside that wonderment would be taken away which is the only means by which their authority is preserved. --Spinoza -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:41:31 Anton Aylward wrote:
Rodney Baker said the following on 12/29/2009 10:35 AM:
On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:45:00 Anton Aylward wrote: [...]
So, there you are with your 80-120-160-250-320-500G laptop. You have absolutely no reason NOT to install LVM since right now you probably can;t figure out what to do with all that space, and create
Oh, I can figure out exactly what to do with all that space ;-). I have 1x 500GB and 1x 640GB disk in my desktop machine (with /home as a 150GB Raid-1 mdraid volume) and I'm still going to need to add more space.
I did say LAPTOP! I do have a machine under my desk with a couple of 500G drives that acts as 'file server', mail hub, archive, web & information server. All the stuff I don't need to carry out of the office.
Fair point. My desktop machine is also my mail/file/media server. Normally I would recommend a dedicated server machine but I can't justify that at home for budget reasons.
The LAPTOP is what I need to carry with me.
What I might need to carry with me on vacation is yet another matter.
If you need to carry with you everything that is "in the office" then perhaps a re-think is in order.
So, Rodney, what is on your laptop? How big is the drive there?
I have 2 - my private one has an 80GB laptop - 40GB WinXP, 40 GB Linux (10GB /home, the rest for /). Most files are stored on the desktop/server. The work laptop has 160GB (I think - it's been a while since I checked), again split 50/50, although under Linux I also have VirtualBox with an 8GB Win2k partition (for a couple of specific work-related apps that won't run on anything later). I was going to try to convert the WinXP partition to a VM so that I can run it under VB but that hasn't proved to be as easy as I would have liked. I may invesigate Parallels for that because it has a utility to automate the process that I know works well (at least on Mac OSX, and I believe it should on Linux too). Anyway, now we're starting to drift slightly O/T - virtualisation is a whole different ball-game than dual booting... -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au =================================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Rodney Baker said the following on 12/29/2009 11:43 PM:
I was going to try to convert the WinXP partition to a VM so that I can run it under VB but that hasn't proved to be as easy as I would have liked.
Me too. As I mentioned in a previous thread, I shrunk down the Windows partition that came with the laptop so as to keep "support" happy. I'd like to be able to run VB and just point it at that partition instead of creating a virtual drive etc etc etc. I've googled and found instructions for doing that at the command line, but it doesn't seem to, as you put it, "as easy as I would have liked". And the articles don't give any hints as to how to deal with things not going as it appears they should. Well, that's all for another time ... -- That's what I love about GUIs: They make simple tasks easier, and complex tasks impossible. -- John William Chambless -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Anton Aylward wrote:
When I explain why I never seem to get an argument, rather I get asked why Microsoft doesn't do that already since its so obviously sensible.
That could apply to a lot of what MS does. Another would be why it's still necessary for Windows users to defrag their disks. Or... -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Tue, 2009-12-29 at 09:57 +0000, Bob Williams wrote:
Hi,
I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop, which is running Windows Vista Home Premium. The machine has a single drive, 250Gb. I would like to install openSUSE 11.2 alongside the Windows OS, so that I can dual boot, but I would like to hear of other people who have already done this without any mishaps. Or maybe I want to hear from those who did have mishaps, and how they overcame them.
I have done the process of installing linux after Windows before, and YaST looked after me all the way, but about six months ago I tried to impress a friend, and ended up with an unbootable machine - the BIOS reported 'no operating system found'. I know that both operating systems were installed in their respective partitions, and the problem was something to do with grub writing into the MBR, which upset Windows Vista :(
I have googled to a few forums, where I have found howtos, and I have read the HowTo on the openSUSE site which describes installing openSUSE alongside Windows, but onto separate hard drives.
Any pointers would be welcome. Meanwhile, I'm defragmenting Windows, in preparation for resizing its partition. Y'see, I'm committed ;)
TIA,
Bob -- Registered Linux User #463880 FSFE Member #1300 GPG-FP: A6C1 457C 6DBA B13E 5524 F703 D12A FB79 926B 994E openSUSE 11.2, Kernel 2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop, KDE 4.3.3 Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz, 4GB DDR RAM, nVidia GeForce 9200GS
Hi, I have installed opensuse on windows computers as a dual boot many times. I found the following steps to be very helpful in achieving a trouble-free installation. 1. If the wind* Operating System has been used for some time previous, then I defragment windo* until it doesn't need to be defragmented again. You can tell when this happens because it only takes 30 seconds to a minute to do the defragmentation. Usually, it takes about five times of defragmenting to do this if the Win* system was used, and only once if it is a fresh win installation. 2. In the win control panel>administrative tools section there is a partioning tool. Use this to shrink the windows partion to leave a unused space on the harddrive into which you will install opensuse. 3. I then set the computer bios to boot from the cd drive as the first boot priority. 4. I usually use gparted to set up my partitions for opensuse before I do the opensuse installation because I usually set up my computer to boot wind* and two other linux systems, but the opensuse installer is fully capable of doing the installation without any other tools. If you want to use gparted, it can be downloaded from here http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php The simple partioning that I use is to make the entire unused space on the harddrive into one extended partition. Then I make three logical partions in the extended partition. The first logical partion is my swap partion. I make this two times the size of the total ram memory on my computer. The next partition that I make is my root (/) partition. This partition I usually make a minimum of 10 gigabytes. The next partition that I make is my home (/home) partition. I also make this a minimum of 10 gigabytes, but what I do is to make the remainder of the unused space into the home partition. If you don't use gparted, you can let suse automatically install into the total unused space (easiest). Or, you can use the partitioning tools in the opensuse installer in expert mode to set the partition sizes as I have described above (a little harder than the automatic installation, but not too much harder). 5. Then I put the opensuse disc in the cd/dvd drive and install opensuse. I install the grub bootloader so the computer boots from the mbr. The system will install, then reboot the computer automatically. Once it has rebooted and you are finished playing with the computer for the evening, then take the Opensuse installation disk out of the cd drive and shut the computer down. Before you leave everything to go to bed, restart the computer once more, and enter the bios to reset the boot order so that the hard drive is reset to sequence before the cd drive. I hope that this helps you. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wednesday 30 Dec 2009 02:35:01 Mark Misulich wrote:
On Tue, 2009-12-29 at 09:57 +0000, Bob Williams wrote:
Hi,
I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop, which is running Windows Vista Home Premium. The machine has a single drive, 250Gb. I would like to install openSUSE 11.2 alongside the Windows OS, so that I can dual boot, but I would like to hear of other people who have already done this without any mishaps. Or maybe I want to hear from those who did have mishaps, and how they overcame them.
[...]
Hi, I have installed opensuse on windows computers as a dual boot many times. I found the following steps to be very helpful in achieving a trouble-free installation.
[...]
I hope that this helps you.
Many thanks, Mark. I'm now up and running with a dual boot system. YaST and openSUSE did it all, and I didn't get the MBR nonsense I'd experienced previously :) BTW, no need to copy your replies to my personal e-mail. I read the openSUSE list regularly, and always if I'm expecting a reply to one of my questions. Bob -- Registered Linux User #463880 FSFE Member #1300 GPG-FP: A6C1 457C 6DBA B13E 5524 F703 D12A FB79 926B 994E openSUSE 11.2, Kernel 2.6.31.5-0.1-desktop, KDE 4.3.3 Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz, 4GB DDR RAM, nVidia GeForce 9200GS -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (7)
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Anton Aylward -
Basil Chupin -
Bob Williams -
Felix Miata -
James Knott -
Mark Misulich -
Rodney Baker