Bill Barry wrote: > On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 4:39 PM, Randy Stapilus <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> I've decided to try installing a Linux Mint, and it's been going well >> so far. I'm just getting into the partitioning, and it has asked me >> something that makes me nervous. I'm going for a dual boot with XP, >> which has already been on the machine. >> >> Mint's installer has gotten to "starting up the partitioner." I now >> have in front of me a box that says, "Unmount partitions that are in >> use?" It says, "The installer has detected that the following disks >> have mounted partitions: /dev/sdb Do you want the installer to try >> to unmount the partitions on these disks before continuing? If you >> leave them mounted, you will not be able to create, delete or resize >> partitions on these disks, but you may be able to install to exiting >> partitions there." >> >> Yes and no buttons below, with the "no" indicating default. >> > > This step of unmounting is not dangerous, but you are wandering into > dangerous territory. Are you going to resize a partition, or use an > empty partition that already exists? Just make sure you don't delete > the partition containing your XP installation, but only resize it. > > Bill > I have also heard that it is a good idea to "defrag" the MS partition(s) first - compact it all down to one end of the partition - they said this was because MS (or maybe it was an OEM?) puts important stuff out there on the disk that might get whacked during a Linux resizing (any truth in that?) My personal experience was that Linux could successfully resize MS up through XP, but not beyond (say as in Vista?) - Your mileage may vary, possibly depending on the OEM? Regards Fred James
PS: It is always advisable to have a good recovery plan in place, just in case - for me personally, I never cared if MS survived on my personal machine(s). I did try to keep MS on my laptop(s) for easier warranty service but when V showed up that went poof - oh, well _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
