Not enough space for Debian install on windows8 hard disk?
 

New HP laptop. Try to install Debian from small install disk down the internet.

But at partitioning, trying to leave W8 there and put Debian further up the disk, not enough free space on disk. Ther's a 1G space at start of disk and a 800G or so space at its end. 'Guided Partition' said there was not enough room for Debian.

So what do I do?

Thanks.

Hi,

Maybe a silly question, but is the 800GB indicated as free space? I'm no Windows expert but I think it might be useful to 'shrink' the partition from within Windows and try again indicating to use the 'Free space available' in the installation.

Kind regards,

Eric

Huge thanks Eric.

(It is indicated as free space by Linux, does not seem to be mentioned by Windows)

Looking at the disk on Windows it looks a bit different, as you would expect, from what the Linux partitioner shows. I notice that one partition is called C: it says 95% of it, 650GB is free.

Do you think I ought to shrink this and then install Linux into the space created?

Hi,

No problem. To me it looks like that seems to be the problem. The partition created for the C: drive is just that, a partition, on which you have, like you say, 650 GB free. But... That 'free' space is only available to Windows, included in the created partition. If you want to free up space on a disk level, you'll need to shrink the Windows partition indeed. Then that 'freed up' space will be visible in your Linux installer and can be used to install your favorite Linux distro on it.

Kind regards,

Eric

Right. So right clicked the C: partition in Windows tool, and resized it. Tried the Debian installer again and it worked.

Only odd thing is that it boots into Windows, Grub is got by booting from an empty cd rom drive. Thanks again.

Hi,

Great to hear it worked out for you. Have fun with Linux.

Kind regards,

Eric