<Snip> I would have thought using M$ partitioning tools was the safest way of shrinking a ntfs partition? As for the rest, the free space could be left as such for linux, or, more usefully, a fat32 partition made for data exchange, which is what I was recommending, leaving the rest for linux. <snip> Anne
yes you'd think so...
what i found was that in my experimenting M$'s partitioning tools do not follow any sort of logical standard for its allocation tables. Figures huh? It seems to wish to somehow put the tables on sectors & parts where most other OSes don't expect them. I assume this is so because windows is programmed to presume it will be the only OS on the system. This results in data corruption if your other OS lands on that sector! GAH!
not good... PM avoids this by analyzing existing sectors & clusters then "landing" the new sectors for your partition one sector over from the one M$ would overwrite/use. Smart but it makes windows think later (if you try their GUIed partitioner) that something is wrong. MDK Does the same thing as PM & PM then in turn will "find" an error MDK made & try to correct it if you let it! MDK in my experience is the most useful so far in that its partitoning tools seems more intelligent. M$'s partitioning tools don't find that same error after an MDK sector swap session. Dunno why exactly...haven't figured that out...but i'm guessing MDK Is made to imitate Windows or fool it somehow, where PM isn't made to do that for / with windows & other OSes involved. PHEW! sorry to ramble just never tried to get all that thought out on paper before. :D
------------- FemmeFatale, aka The Skirt
Good Decisions Your boss Made: "We'll do as you suggest and go with Linux. I've always liked that character from Peanuts."
- Source: Dilbert
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