Six Primary Partitions on My HP Pavilion 15 Notebook PC ?

rm_-rf_windows · 06-26-2019, 09:56 AM

Hi there!

=> Perhaps it'd be best to begin by having a look at the 3 attached screenshots... A picture says a thousand words...

It's been a while. The last I heard, you could only have 4 primary partitions on your hard drive. It LOOKS like this computer was pre-installed with 6 primary partitions!

I generally like to do partitioning before doing my linux installations. I wanted to install Lubuntu along side with Windows 10 + 2 data partitions (one encrypted, the other not) + SWAP partition.

I've googled it and found all kinds of stuff about partitions in HP Pavilion 15, but no clear answer.

Given this process is a very delicate one, if someone has an answer, could you work me through it step by step ?

I like GParted, but the new Lubuntu distro has KDE Parted...

=> More specific system info in attachments

Many thanks in advance,

RM

BW-userx · 06-26-2019, 10:20 AM

If you are booting UEFI then primary and logical, secondary partition no longer apply due to GPT partition table, that does things different. With Windows 10 most, not mine, boot UEFI therefore HDD is GPT.

Code:

sudo parted -l

to see what's what.

rm_-rf_windows · 06-26-2019, 12:35 PM

Many thanks, BW-userx, for your reply.
I'm not as advanced as you think, and your message is greek to me (tried wikipediaing "GPT" and "UEFI", but...)

I ran the command, here it is:

Code:

ubuntu@lubuntu:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA HGST HTS541075A9 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 750GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  683MB   682MB   ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, diag
 2      683MB   955MB   273MB   fat32        EFI system partition          boot, esp
 3      955MB   1089MB  134MB                Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 4      1089MB  727GB   726GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 5      727GB   729GB   1916MB  ntfs                                       hidden, diag
 6      729GB   750GB   21.4GB  ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, msftdata


Model: Generic Flash Disk (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 61.9GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  61.9GB  61.9GB  primary  fat32        boot, lba


Model: Unknown (unknown)
Disk /dev/zram3: 508MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096B/4096B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End    Size   File system     Flags
 1      0.00B  508MB  508MB  linux-swap(v1)


Model: Unknown (unknown)
Disk /dev/zram1: 508MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096B/4096B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End    Size   File system     Flags
 1      0.00B  508MB  508MB  linux-swap(v1)


Model: Unknown (unknown)
Disk /dev/zram2: 508MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096B/4096B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End    Size   File system     Flags
 1      0.00B  508MB  508MB  linux-swap(v1)


Model: Unknown (unknown)
Disk /dev/zram0: 508MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096B/4096B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End    Size   File system     Flags
 1      0.00B  508MB  508MB  linux-swap(v1)


lubuntu@lubuntu:~$

What next?

Thanks again.

BW-userx · 06-26-2019, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rm_-rf_windows

Many thanks, BW-userx, for your reply.
I'm not as advanced as you think, and your message is greek to me (tried wikipediaing "GPT" and "UEFI", but...)

I ran the command, here it is:

Code:

ubuntu@lubuntu:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA HGST HTS541075A9 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 750GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  683MB   682MB   ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, diag
 2      683MB   955MB   273MB   fat32        EFI system partition          boot, esp
 3      955MB   1089MB  134MB                Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 4      1089MB  727GB   726GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 5      727GB   729GB   1916MB  ntfs                                       hidden, diag
 6      729GB   750GB   21.4GB  ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, msftdata


Model: Generic Flash Disk (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 61.9GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  61.9GB  61.9GB  primary  fat32        boot, lba


Model: Unknown (unknown)
Disk /dev/zram3: 508MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096B/4096B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End    Size   File system     Flags
 1      0.00B  508MB  508MB  linux-swap(v1)


Model: Unknown (unknown)
Disk /dev/zram1: 508MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096B/4096B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End    Size   File system     Flags
 1      0.00B  508MB  508MB  linux-swap(v1)


Model: Unknown (unknown)
Disk /dev/zram2: 508MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096B/4096B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End    Size   File system     Flags
 1      0.00B  508MB  508MB  linux-swap(v1)


Model: Unknown (unknown)
Disk /dev/zram0: 508MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096B/4096B
Partition Table: loop
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End    Size   File system     Flags
 1      0.00B  508MB  508MB  linux-swap(v1)


lubuntu@lubuntu:~$

What next?

Thanks again.

I'm assuming you were in a live boot when you did this?
where the top part is all windows stuff, and yes it is GPT so it can have lots of partitions on it. It no longer has a MBR either to install a grub. or Windows boot loader, this is why it has in the red the UEFI boot partition. I am not verse in UEFI. So I'd suggest you make what exactly you're looking to do more evident and wait for someone that is verse in UEFI to help you.

I am not sure how Windows that uses UEFI boot splits up its partitions, other than the one in the red that I marked where the boot.uefi file is kept, its reserved partitions, looking like it has more than one for hibernation, and one for restore. Which I'd guess are the first 3 partitions,

which is the OS? I do not know.

colorpurple21859 · 06-26-2019, 01:22 PM

Disable secure boot, cms in bios. Disable fast boot under advance in windows power settings, From within windows use windows disk management to shink your windows partition to make room for Linux paritiions. During installation most distros will take of care installing grub to the efi partition and adding an entry in the fstab to mount the efi partition to /boot/efi automagically, However if you select the somethingelse/manual partitioning you may have to select the mount point for the efi partition manually to /boot/efi.

On some hp's you will have to go into bios to change boot order and there has been posts about not able to change the boot order from windows to Linux at all with hp's but I think for most hp's there is some sort of work around that will work.

With gpt disk can have up to 128 partitions and don't have to worry about primary or logical. It looks like you have a windows partition and data partition possibly?

rm_-rf_windows · 07-08-2019, 07:27 AM

Many thanks colorpurple21859 and BW-userx for your replies.

The two unhidden partitions are Windows and Recovery. This was done in factory. Nothing has been modified since.

So, to recapitulate...

1. Disable secure boot, cms in bios.

2. "Disable fast boot under advance in windows power settings" => Where? How?

3. Shrink main Windows partition with windows partition tool. => Which tool exactly?

4. ?
Not sure what to do after this...

After doing steps 1 to 3, if I use GParted or another linux-based partition tool, will the tool tell me I cannot create a new partition because the maximum number of primary partitions has been reached?

BW-userx, colorpurple21859, if you have any other suggestions, I'm all ears!

If there is anybody out there who has done this exact procedure on an HP with more or less the same partition scheme as mine, I would really appreciate your advice, or, better, perhaps step-by-step instructions. I've already lost Windows on several occasions in the past and don't want to do it again.

Many thanks again,

RM

hazel · 07-08-2019, 08:09 AM

I believe that on GPT disks, the maximum number of partitions is 256! In other words, there is effectively no maximum. That's one reason why GPT is replacing MSDOS disks. Another reason is that the new UEFI booting firmware needs GPT. When you look at your disk, you can see that the second partition is formatted as FAT32. That is your EFI system partition where the UEFI expects to find its boot code.

You need to disable secure boot so that you can boot an installation disc/stick and you need to disable fast boot because that effectively restarts Windows from a hibernation image and can cause corruption in a Linux system. You can do both from within the UEFI setup program by pressing a special key during boot (just like you would do with a BIOS) but Colorpurple has suggested a way of disabling fast boot from within Windows using its power management tool, so you might as well use that.

BW-userx · 07-08-2019, 08:22 AM

For someone who was/is a window'er this is basic Windows management, that being said, check the links below.

power settings -> advance power settings for hybridization, and fast boot.

Disk management

you can use gparted to move / resize ntfs, but I'd still recommend going into windows and use their disk management due to it is not just ntfs but ntfs that windows is using for its system.

Just push it over and leave youself room for updates to that system, data storage, whatever you think you need for windows to grow some, and then reestablish the left over as a blank formated partition. then you can use that partition in Linux to split it up,

being that it is Most likely GPT, just slice it up how ever you want it. then install linux to which ever partiton you want it on.

I'd suggest a split system as well.

Code:

/ (root)
/home
/swap (optional)
#mount point /media
/media/data (partition. Optional)

colorpurple21859 · 07-08-2019, 09:14 AM

Quote:

"Disable fast boot under advance in windows power settings" => Where? How?

It is under "choose what the power button do" in control panel power settings.
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options\System Settings

rm_-rf_windows · 07-15-2019, 03:41 AM

Ok. Gonna give it a shot. I'll keep you all posted.
Many thanks for your replies !
RM