I have a Compaq Presario laptop with XP home installed. I'm trying to do a duel installation using Suse 10.2. The problem is that when I try to install, I run into the message that it is impossible to partition due to inconsistent FS. How can I get around this. I have to use XP (unfortunately) for work, but I want to have Linux on my laptop so in my free time I don't have to fight the urge to smash it against a brick wall.

http://www.tuxmachines.org/node/11989

Here is an article about installing openSUSE 10.2 on Compaq laptops.

Thanks....I'll check it out.

I have got the same problem on my Dell XPS. I wanted to install Opensuse 10.2 (from DVD) on it, but got the same problem. In the partitioning section of the installation it says:[HTML][/HTML]

Windows seems to think, though, that the partition is perfectly healthy. Here is what I could find out about the partitions on my system:

I followed the link which penguinator suggested, but that did not say how to get around the problem if you have only the windows partitions on your machine.

So I am at a loss as to what to do. Does anyone have an idea?

Many thanks!

you should run from indows command prompt chkdsk c: /r /x on all your partitions
if this will not help try defragmenting them (if windows ntfs partition is too fragmented linux partition resizer gets fooled and cant resize patritions

Thanks for the hint. I tried both chkdsk and defrag, but it didn't work. The same message persists. So there must be something else. Any idea?

im not 100% sure but linux might fail to resize windows ntfs partitions with compressed or encrypted files so check for them and uncompress unencrypt them (builtin filesystem encryption compression)
this might help