Installing Linux onto existing Win2000 system

kennethrgreen · 07-15-2003, 01:24 PM

I recently purchased a Dell Laptop with Windows 2k already installed. The 40 GB hard drive has only one partition (NTFS).

I am interested in trying Linux in a dual boot situation, but do not really want to uninstall my Win2K and all the currently installed software.

Could someone tell me if it is possible to partition off part of my hard drive and install Linux. I have ~25 GB free.

Thanks for the help!!

david_ross · 07-15-2003, 01:32 PM

Welcome to LQ!

You could use either Partitioan magic (commercial) or parted (free). They can both resize partitions or you. Remember ALWAYS backup your data first (just in case)

Mathieu · 07-15-2003, 01:47 PM

Correct me if I am wrong, but GNU Parted can not resize a NTFS partition.

kennethrgreen · 07-15-2003, 01:59 PM

Thanks for the welcome, David.

Can Parted resize an NTFS partition? I don't know.

If so, is it as reliable as Partition Magic? And how reliable is that?

Thanks again!!

Proud · 07-15-2003, 02:05 PM

Well writing to NTFS partitions is still unstable for linux, so use PM to get the ample 25gigs as another filesystem (ext3 or ReiserFS is recommended). You may want a small FAT32 partition so you can save stuff from linux->fat->ntfs.

Linux already reads from NTFS fine.

kennethrgreen · 07-15-2003, 03:32 PM

Is anyone familiar with the Ranish Partition Manager?

david_ross · 07-16-2003, 03:42 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mathieu
Correct me if I am wrong, but GNU Parted can not resize a NTFS partition.

Oops - I missed that it was ntfs. You can however use ntfsresize:
http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html

kennethrgreen · 07-16-2003, 10:23 AM

Thanks again, David. I will look into that.

JaseP · 07-16-2003, 12:06 PM

Mandrake 9.1's DiskDrake can resize NTFS partitions from what I've heard... Could be wrong though...

kennethrgreen · 07-22-2003, 03:47 PM

I think I finally got to a point where I could begin partitioning my drive and installing linux, but diskdrake (and ntfsresize) only see about 25k available on my drive. (There is over 26 GB free).

I think the problem is that my MFT is located near the end of my current partition. Is there any way around this, or will I just have to reformat and start from scratch?