carrdeave...@gmail.com wrote: > My son has a HP probook 4520s laptop with windows 7 and rather than > have the stress of dealing it I'd like to repartition and have dual > boot Linux. > > Running parted shows: > Number Start End Size Type File system Flag > 1 1049kB 316MB 315MB primary ntfs boot > 2 316MB 302GB 302GB primary ntfs > 3 302GB 318GB 16.1GB primary ntfs > 4 318GB 320GB 2143MB primary fat32 lba > > As the starts and ends don't run in sequence I guess that parted (2.3 > on a Porteus-v09 live CD) does not understand the disk. Will it "just > work", or how can I fix this?
The start and end values look fine to me. I think you may be overlooking the units, which vary (kB, MB, and GB); if you missed that fact, it would look like partitions 1 and 2 end before they begin. A more serious problem is that this seems to be a Master Boot Record (MBR; what parted calls "msdos") disk, which has a limit of four primary partitions, and HP has chosen to use all of them. There are several ways around this problem: - Delete one partition to make room for an extended partition to house all the Linux partitions. Normally one of those primary partitions holds a stand-in for the Linux installation media, and there's a tool you can use to create a DVD set, so you can run that tool and then safely delete the backup partition. My guess is that partition is #3 on your disk, given its size. - Convert one or more partitions from primary to logical. Unfortunately, parted can't do this (AFAIK), but FixParts (http://www.rodsbooks.com/fixparts/) can *IF* there's a gap between partitions. (As you'll need to resize partitions to install Linux, you can certainly create such a gap if it doesn't exist.) DO NOT attempt to convert the Windows boot partition in this way. Note that you might need to boot from #1, #2, or maybe #3, so #4 is the safest bet for conversion in this way. - Wipe the disk clean and do a fresh install using a standard Windows installation disc rather than HP's customized version. This way, Windows can be restricted to use just a couple of partitions rather than sprawl out as it does now. This can work well if you've got access to a generic Windows installation disc for the version of Windows you've got. (You'll need to use the serial number for Windows, probably printed on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop.) You can blame HP for the hassle that their standard configuration is causing. If you make the backup DVD set, I recommend writing a letter to them while you play human disc changer. This certainly isn't a parted issue, although you can use parted to do some of the partition manipulations, depending on what option you choose to pursue. -- Rod Smith rodsm...@rodsbooks.com http://www.rodsbooks.com
