Just yesterday I got the urge to install Linux, so I downloaded Slackware 9.0.

Anyway, I found out that all of my hard drive space is used up for windows XP. (I'm on our family's computer that came preinstalled with windows, so i didn't get to choose the partition size.)

This means that if I want to keep windows, I need to resize my NTFS partition.
This is driving me crazy! I downloaded Partition Magic, and when I'm resizing, it gives me error 1513 (Bad attribute position in file record.) I ran CHKDSK and apparantly there were no problems. I ran Partition Magic again and got the same error.

I tried looking for alternatives for resizing my partition. I have over 5 different resizing programs downloaded, all of them have step by step instructions longer than the Bible. I have Partition Magic, Ranish, Presizer, BootItNG, and the ntfsprogs resize app. I really dont know what to do. (I do not have the money for an extra hard drive, and also feel that that isn't a manditory solution.)

I've been googling for about 3 hours now, and i've read like 4 manuals, over 5 FAQs, and many Step-By-Step tutroials. I'm having an overload, and I haven't even gotten to installing Slackware yet!

If anyone can offer me help, I would appreciate it. I was reluctant to use the boards because I figured it would take too long to get a response...

I dont know abt slackware,but in redhat,u can use disk druid utility for partitioning.I found it quite easy to do this stuff with disk druid.

Mandrake may work on your NTFS as well. I use Slack (bought a second drive for it) but downloaded Mandrake to give it a try and resized my NTFS on the original drive while I was at it. It's not guaranteed but it worked for me. So just resize with Mandrake and then install Slack over it.

I dont think I can install Mandrake without another CDR. I used my last one on Slackware.

in slackware, when installing, there should be a point where it says to use fdisk or chdisk

try those progs, chdisk i think is easier to use, it may seem complicated, just make sure u follow the commands and use the command to write the new table to the disk

***be warned, those progs could damage your ntfs partition and make it unusable***

as for partition magic, i have used it and it seems godlike to me, have u checked their knowledge database for what the error means? i'll go check it out soon

it may help to defrag your hdd too


ps. your urge may have made u hasty to choose the 1 disk slackware, i strongly recommend using a distro with easy to install interface such as redhat/mandrake, wait until u get more cdr's, or download the discs and do a hdd install using mount commands: i'm pretty sure mandrake will allow that, i'm not sure about others

checked powerquest site, says the error has to do with windoze new file format

i don't know if it will help, but, first download and install partition magic update to 8.01 and then try installing windoze updates

Yeah, I just didn't want to defrag if I didn't have to, as it would add at least anonther hour to this confusing process. I did go to the Power Quest knowledge boards and they just said to use DSKCHK. Also in slackware, after I login, I do the fdisk/ dev/hda thingie, but I didn't see an option to resize a partition...

cfdisk. I would *not* try to resize NTFS with fdisk or cfdisk. I think that's guaranteed to fail and, if not, it's probably very likely to.

Slack's easy to install - just not pretty. Debian... now there's something that's no fun to install. But, yeah - whichever you'd like.

-- I'd definitely defrag no matter what or (a) you're not going to be able to resize Windows as small as you'd like and (b) you risk truncating data.

For some reason, I can't download an update from the Power Quest site. None of their updates load, when i select PM, nothing happens. If anyone has the latest update and would be willing to send it to me, I could at least see if that helps...

I used FIPS; but that may be a bit "fierce" unless you are moderately apt at doing stuff with computers.

Try defragging, first; that always helps.