Alex.

Thank you! I easily loose patience often too early.
But my long, long experience with computer problems
has given me a kind of survival-instinct (that
eventually may proof false) to what works and to what
is a fruitless exhaust for a miserable chess-player
like me. My instincts are often right.

Your first question asks :
Are you asking whether there are other places to
get the ISO image of the installation media? -
If so, yes there are. There is a list of mirrors
on the Linux Mint website.

Yes, that is clear, Alex. But once the ISO is
placed on the memory-stick and I start the Linux from there ...

I see only a very few buttons on the Linux Screen now.
One of these few buttons says: "INSTALL". Now to more
precisely formulate my question, this is what I ask:

Will I be guided always to THE SAME INTERNET ADDRESS
for the installation - NO MATTER which one of the various
ISO image sites I used in the first place to download the
ISO Image? In other words: Is the internet-address to where
I am guided to when I press that "INSTALL" button - always
the same? Is it unified and are its mirrors all the same? -

That is utterly important for me. And if yes, why has
another helper here in this forum shown pictures (images)
with outright very much simpler images of the installation
procedure and asked what my problem is? If I had received
those dialogues I would never had to ask so desperate for
your help. The fact that this user showed images much more
similiar (similar?) to those descriptions I read in the
manual is a clear hint that the site(s) for the installation
of the Linux are NOT UNIFIED, but are indeed different.

So my question basically was if the site from where I
download the ISO image will later lead me in the "real"
installation onto the harddisk to different internet-addresses?

And why does the internet site for the installation
(I sent 3 printscreens from it in a former thread)
does not show its www.xyz.-address? - Strange.

I hope, Alex, you understand my question a little better now.

Then you write: "I suggested previously, that you boot up Windows,
then resize the boot partition, to make room for Mint - Did you try that?"

Answer - NO.

Also, just a thought, is your Windows C: Drive encrypted?

I do not know it 100 percent. But for 99 percent it IS NOT.

The memory stick (16 GB) from which I boot the Linux has
never seen anything of Windows. I bought it solely for the
purpose to install the Linux ISO Image on it and never used
it for any other purpose. Should the installation site see only
the memory-stick, and NOT THE Harddisk here on my computer,
well, then we might be closer to the problem.

However, nothing of these considerations are discussed in
the installation guide. The installation guide says I
have to press on the INSTALL-Button after I started the
system from my memory-stick with the so called "Linux Life
Session". Should you know of a better or a newer installation
guide for Linux Mint Cinnamon Release 19, then please be so
kind as to give that address to me. I will read it thoroughly.

I am grateful that you do not leave me in the cold after the
possibly way too frank comments in my last thread.

Thank you, Alex.

Lusitano

It has been a little while since I have used Linux Mint, but as I remember, the install tends to use a central place to download the files it needs, and AFTER it is installed, usually offers you the chance to change it - "Do you want to use a local mirror?" or similar question is asked.

The NORMAL install shows like the screenshots that I posted earlier in this thread. Since yours has come up with something different, it means that something about your system is different, and so, it doesn't fit the norm.

The screenshots that you posted earlier in the thread, show that Linux Mint Cinnamon 19 thinks that your Windows partition is unused. That is potentially dangerous, when installing Mint, which usually can detect how much free space there is on your Windows partition, and resize it to make space for Linux Mint.

As has been suggested in this thread, the problem can either be caused by your BIOS 'protecting' you from those malicious Windows Malware programs from trashing your hard drive, OR that something in Windows is 'protecting' your partitions (why I asked about encryption). In order to know whether it is the BIOS, we would need to know what BIOS you have, and what VERSION of the BIOS you have. In order to know whether it is something in Windows that is protecting your partition, you would probably need to boot up Windows and see whether it lets you resize the partition. If it does, free up about 150GB of hard drive space, and see whether it will let you install Mint afterwards.

There is one other possibility, that hasn't been mentioned so far, which I just stumbled onto. Unfortunately, it is an area that I don't know enough about to help you. This thread - https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...5469647-print/ is very old, but brings up a fairly similar situation. It discusses MBR and GPT partitions, and says that there is a limit of 4 MBR partitions, and you already have 4 partitions - whether they are GPT or MBR, I'm afraid that someone else will have to help with.



There is 1 other thing that you should strongly consider, since (as I understand it) you want to try out Linux Mint Cinnamon 19 - You have a fully functioning Linux Mint Cinnamon 19 USB key, which you can use as a 'Live' system, to see whether you like it. It has programs installed on it already, which make it a fully functioning Operating System. I am not sure, but even on USB, I don't think that any files are saved, so I think it will reset each time you reboot.

Dear Alex,

your last post is the first one of whom I felt understood.
Yes. The first since I registered in LQ in August 2018.

I admire your deep technical skills, especially the fact
that you can read from my posted pictures that the
installation site in the internet "thinks" my windows
partition is unused. Reminds me of a X-Ray-doctor
whose interpretations I likewise will never understand.

But I run an off the mill device (Acer Aspire ES1-731).
It is obvious that the procedure in the installation-site will
not (never?) work as it is scheduled to work for me.

My former questions have been answered. Thank you.
But two questions still remain:

1) Why is the install-site hiding its www-address?
2) Why is the whole procedure not done OFF-line?

I think it is a sick sign of our time that the help-system of
windows now is only available online, and that I am
constantly spied at with Cortana etc. That Cortana, once
uninstalled with some secret recipe, is suddenly back after the
feared, enforced, hourlong upgrades of this truely orwellian
system (Windows 10). In short, that the Microsoft Moloch
uses me like an idiot, like its personal shit-puppet with which
it can do whatever it likes. My computer has been overtaken
by them. That is not pathetic. It is the fact. And it is part of
the system that they do not answer mails from critical users
like me. That includes the mails of the best and by far most
qualified techie-journal ("C´t" published by Heise) in the
whole of Germany, which has the undisputed highest ranking
among Germanys computer-magazines (not in quantity - but
in quality) since 4 decades. I know this because I had
correspondence with two of their editors about this topic.
Their mails to MS remained unanswered too. Stunning.

Then why is Linux not installed from the USB-Stick?

Espcially in my remote place in Portugal where blackouts
happen 100 times more often than in Germany. Yes, the
Laptop will switch automatically to battery, but the phone
net goes down with any blackout. Maybe not in your country
but here n Portugal. That makes no sense to me.

Yes, there are judical problems with copyrighted codecs
for the meaningful use of Mint Cinnamon. If these missing
files cannot be copied onto the memory-stick in the first
step and must be downloaded later in a second step, that
would eventually still be safer and bear less problems.

OK, my case is special, I should abstain from generalisations.

But you say yourself that the fact that the windows partition
is not recognized .. "is dangerous". I trust your expertise,
as I already mentioned, and that may sound paradox, one reason
for that is that you admit that the discussion about MBR and
GPT partitions is yet not fully understood by you.

It gives me hope that you are a honest man, and that is the
one thing that often matters much more than tech expertise.

The asked specifications about my BIOS are the following:

Opened, the BIOS shows on top its name:

InsydeH20 Setup Utility Rev. 5.0

but a few rows under the top-name it shows:

System Bios Version: V1.16

Since you mentioned "GPT" in your posting it might be
interesting that the BIOS shows at another place:

GPT Partition Recovery (None)
GPT Partition Record (No Record)
GOP Version: Intel GOP Driver (8.0.1029)
HDD Model Name: WDC WD5000LPCX-21VHATO.

Maybe Western Digital could help finding an answer?

So far ok. But your second suggestion to resize my boot
partition as well is a great problem. My stomach sends a
stern warning to my brain about your suggestion.

Are you in earnest (seriously) suggesting that I should resize
my windows boot partition here with the build-in windows
Disk Management Tool? That is quite an issue. I am still an
amateur, albeit one with 40 years of computer experience.

According to what I read the answer is no as the Windows
Disk Management tool had not only limitations to manage
disk partitons. The times of "FORMAT C:/v" are long gone.

And: Resizing partition features are only available in
Windows 2008 Server, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

I use windows 10, as you know. Therefore I have to use
any external program. The best would be to use the same
program for this resizing-purpose as you Linux-guys use
yourself in the installation-procedure. Right? Would I
not run into exactly the same problems (ergo with many
error-messages) with its offline-version that I face now
in its online-version?

And is it really possible to SHRINK the boot partition with it
to make room for the Linux?

Then - what happens if there is no free disk space behind the
system or boot partition? One last point. Please check if it
is allowing to preview or undo its operations. If not my
stomach will have another terrible triumph over my poor,
old, math-averting brain, as it happened before to me.

All these dangers and disadvantages lead me to ask you again,
Mister Paton ( of course I ask myself this too ) : Can this
still work out in this late stadium?

There are 2 other variants of popular Linux systems for the
personal computer. Possibly one of those you use yourself.

Maybe I should - if the BIOS-information brings no sudden,
fundamental turnaround - switch to the system you use
yourself, Mister Paton?

After 3 months of this, and a suggested manual repartitioning
still in the clouds, you might please understand my question.

And will I not run into the same problems with the variant of
Linux that you use yourself? - I will not speculate about it.

Thank you, Alex.
With kind regrds,

Lusitano

I use Ubuntu, currently, BUT I doubt that it would make a difference. Ubuntu and Mint both use the same partition re-sizing tool, I think.

Windows 10 DOES have partition re-sizing. There is a tutorial here:- https://www.hdd-tool.com/windows-10/how-to-resize-partition.html#.W-qvUuKnz4Y

You have already seen the tool that most of us Linux people use, as you included a screenshot of it. It's where you got confused about "Mount Points". This is also where I (and others) ascertained that Linux thinks that your Windows partitions are unused.

It had not occurred to me that you might be in a place where internet connections drop out. You CAN install Linux Mint from a USB stick, with no internet connection at all. Simply leave the tickboxes for "3rd party.........copyrighted codecs" and "install updates" UNTICKED. The only reason it is worth connecting to the internet at all, is to ensure that your WIFI is working, before installing. (WIFI can be difficult on some laptops).

Just so you know, it wasn't deep knowledge that led me to wonder about your partitions showing as empty from your screenshots. see the attached modified version. I have circled the column in question.

/dev/sda1 efi - is an essential boot partition, if you wish to keep windows.
/dev/sda2 - unknown - it is almost impossible for anyone remotely to be able to work out what this is.
/dev/sda3 - Your Windows C: drive partition (at a guess).
/dev/sda4 - Probably some kind of recovery partition for Windows.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Dear Alex Paton,

ashes over my head ! Found the

Data Carrier Administration

in Windows 10. I am sorry.

I attach a printscreen of it (german language)

The cursor in the picture is on "Alle Aufgaben".
Means "All tasks". In the grey rows the important
fields say:

Formatting
Volume expanding
Volume reducing
Volume deleting

Properties

All fields are greyed out. That means clicking
on them has no effect. Maybe I have to activate
the "developer-feature" under windows 10, to
be allowed to work in these fields. Brrr ...

Following is the sparse information that this
program offers. I translated as good as I could.


Data Carrier Administration:

Volume: (Datacarrier 0 Partition 1)
Layout: Easy
Type: Basis
Data System: ( here shows only an empty space - nothing)
Status: Free of errors (EFI-System Partition)
Capacity: 100 MB
Free Space: 100 MB
Free: 100 percent
--------------------------------------------------------

Volume: Acer (C
Layout: Easy
Type: Basis
Data System: NTFS
Status: Free of errors (Startpartition, pagefile,
primary partition, crashdump)
Capacity: 465.16 MB
Free Space: 246.08 MB
Free: 53 percent
--------------------------------------------------------

Volume: Recovery
Layout: Easy
Type: Basis
Data System: NTFS
Status: Free of errors (OEM-Partition)
Capacity: 500 MB
Free Space: 95 MB
Free: 19 percent
--------------------------------------------------------

I am one of those users who are incapable of
understanding their own computer. And that
after 40 years. Embarrassing. I intended to close
this with a joke about ones spouse after 40 years.
But it seems too shallow momentary.

I wait and see if you can pull any conclusion
out of this thin information. Thank you.

Lusitano

Attached Thumbnails

 

It's an MSR partition.

EFI is the boot partition (its a partition with a folder that contains Microsoft boot stuff and if you install Linux it should create a folder next to the Windows one on this partition with its stuff). Recovery is where your backup for Windows 10 is. Those two shouldn't be touched. C is where your Windows 10 install is. I'll tell you a story. Once upon a time I tried to shrink Windows 7 and install Linux. I did but I broke Windows and had to reinstall it. Newer versions of Windows have something called "Master File Table" on C partition and this prevents shrinking. If you plan to mess with C partition I suggest you save whatever you want to keep to an external hard drive before doing it. I also suggest you grab a Windows 10 iso from Microsoft's website and burn it to disc. If something happens to your Windows boot you can use the command prompt on that disc with these instructions to repair Windows so it will boot again: https://hetmanrecovery.com/recovery_...oot-loader.htm

I never used Linux Mint. I have no idea what the install media is like for it but I wanted to warn you about messing with Windows 10 partitions and provide you ways to get it back if something goes wrong.

MFT has been around since NTFS has; it is a database of the details of the files stored on the partitions. It doesn't prevent shrinking, as far as I am aware.

The recovery partition is a 2 edged sword. While it is there to recover Windows, it is generally set up by the manufacturers, and re-installs all of the software that most sensible users remove, as soon as the get a new laptop.

The backup advice is certainly valid though.

Unfortunately, we are at a point where neither the Linux Mint installer, nor Windows 10 Partition Manager can resize the C: drive, so I think that Lusitano is now looking for suggestions for how to move past that.

EDIT: Actually Lusitano, can you confirm whether you ran the Windows Partition Manager as Administrator? I notice that everything is greyed out.

It appears that there is no unallocated space on the disk.
Linux needs at least one partition.

Can Windows reduce the size of a partition sufficiently, so that Mint can allocate itself a partition in the resultant free space?

I would have thought so, since that is how the Linux Mint install is supposed to work. He only needs to free up 30-80GB, and he has more than that in free space.

There is a possible confusion here:-
A Windows partition can have free space - this is not available to a Mint install.
A disk can have free space - this is available for Mint to create a new partition...

I get what you are saying Jeremy, but the situation is that Luciano cannot reclaim the space. If it is unused space on a Windows Partition, there are only obstacles in the way of reclaiming it. There is undoubtedly something that is getting in the way of resizing the Windows partition, a few of which have been suggested already - too many GPT partitions; software that is stopping the resize procedure; BIOS settings that are 'protecting' the partitions from alteration, etc..

9 times out of 10, the Mint install can resize partitions to install a dual boot system, IF there is enough free space on the Windows partition. Luciano would not be asking for help on this forum if he were not one of the 1 in 10.

Oh, my God.

to see my problem on center-stage here is surely not
embarrassing but a thing I do not afford. And I do not
afford it because I myself make the most errors here.

The only thing I really learned is to save my data.
I still run Foxbase Plus from 1986 today (with its
compiler) on a DOS-Box which Linux-people have
developed for guys like me for Windows - great work!

I have no RAID but 2 identical Seagate Expansion HD´s
on which I store all my things since the stoneage.

Volume Acer (C in my last post shows a smiley. I did
not intentionally put that smiley into my posting.

---

Radical Dreamer says "EFI is the boot partition
(its a partition with a folder that contains Microsoft
boot stuff and if you install Linux it should create
a folder next to the Windows one on this partition with
its stuff). Recovery is where your backup for Windows 10
is. Those two shouldn't be touched.

Thank you very much for that important hint.
Since I was again too unaware when I wrote to Alex that
all fields are greyed out I do only now realize that
my cursor was on one of those two "untouchables" (danger partitions).

But when I moved the cursor to the main chunk of the
volume (to C: Acer) this morning the SHRINKING
OPTION (reducing the space of the C: partition) IS NOT
GREYED OUT. Oh, my God. And again. You might ask me what
I had smoked the other day. I am really sorry. I reduced
more files yesterday. That - of course - is not expanding
the volume of the main partition, only the free space on it.

I will jump and reduce (cut off) 120 GB from the main
partition (Acer C -- I confused MB with GB in one of
my former posts, too. Gosh. If this fails I will later
try the full installation (erasing the complete HD and
hoping for a full exclusive Linux Mint installation) on
my Acer.

I promise.

If all breaks down I will return with a little, full
functioning 4 MB windows computer system to Linux
Questions and ask you how we can recover the wreckage.

No problem.

My parents had true problems in their lifes. We are
only playing with around with our toys.

Radical Dreamer says: "Newer versions of Windows have
something on C partition that prevents shrinking."

That might be wrong or only true for former windows
versions. I thought this myself since I read other
posts in the Net who said the same. Alex corrected me
in this point,

But for the ISO of windows I will get me Monday another
Memory Stick with 16 GB. I visited the "Hetman Software"
Site for various Windows Recovery programs (for
professionals) you recommended. Thanks, Radical Dreamer.



Alex Paton writes
November 14, 2018:

"unfortunately we are at a point where neither the
Linux Mint installer, nor Windows 10 Partition Manager
can resize the C: drive."

Alex Paton, that is only the case because of MY stupidity.
Only this morning I realized that the fields are greyed
out only then if my cursor is placed on the 2 "forbidden
partitions", as Radical Dreamer explained it.

Then Alex asks: "Lusitano, can you confirm whether you
ran the Windows Partition Manager as Administrator?"

Yes, as an idiot master. I can only be happy that I
do not run a factory or production facility as an
administrator. But yes.

JeremyBoden writes on 14. Nov. 2018:

"It appears that there is no unallocated space on
the disk. Linux needs at least one partition. Can
Windows reduce the size of a partition sufficiently,
so that Mint can allocate itself a partition in
the resultant free space?"

Now, since this morning, yes, I hope so, Jeremy.

On Nov. 15, 2018 Alex Patons says

"I would have thought so. He only needs to free
up 30-80GB, and he has more than that in free space."

This guy (Alex) understands my machine better than I
do, even though he has never seen it. Remarkable.
And I was the one confusing him, instead of
looking into it more seriously and thoroughly.

JeremyBoden says on 15. Nov. 2018

"There is a possible confusion here: - A Windows partition
can have free space - this is not available to a Mint install.
A disk can have free space - this is available for Mint
to create a new partition..."

Yes, Jeremy. I understand it - finally, too. Thank you.
And Alex Paton then answers by protecting me, even
so I think I only misleaded him (unintentionally)
with my last post proclaiming that the fields
regarding the important windows partition commands
occured only in grey. BUT NOT in the MAIN ACER one.

So, now I am asked for action. I will not come back
without a true (real) turn, be it whatever it will.
I am sick and tired of the upgrades of Windows so
much, every day and I have a true desire for the
cool, calm, green Mint.

Possibly I will come back in 2 days, Tue., 20th Nov.

I will never forget this most intensive Help I received.
I can´t remember to have ever received anything like it.

Lusitano.

I have always believed that there is a much higher sense of satisfaction from achieving something which is difficult than something which is achieved easily, or with little effort. I am sure that IF you manage to get Mint installed, finally, you will be more determined to make good use of it.

Dear Alex Paton,
Dear all other Participants,

that is something the old greeks did already know (effortless
gains are somewhat worthless) and I agree with your philosophical
view in this respect with 100 percent.

On the other hand: Since the times of the old greeks, over the
roman empire, the Renaissance and into the early modern times the
sentence "All swans are white" was scientifically correct. Until
James Cook came to Australia 1778. I do not dare to compare me
with the greatest explorer of all time - but with the black swan.

This time my screen-captures were not stored on the memory-stick.
First the resizing (shrinking) of the windows 10 partition was
extremely easy. I cut off 120 GB. Then the installation went the
way it was supposed to (ACCORDING to the DESCRIPTION in the MANUAL)
It went on for 10 minutes. I already thought I was through.

But suddenly I received:

"We´re sorry, the installation crashed.
After you close this window, we´ll allow
you to file a bug report using the
integrated bug reporting tool.

This will gather information about your
system and your installation process.
The details will be sent to our bug tracker
and a developer will attend the problem
as soon as possible."

After I cancelled the process I waited so that the system could
retrieve in order. I received NO further notice. I even received
no hint that the system "allows me to file a bug report using
the integrated bug reporting tool". That did -NOT- happen.

Returned to windows after another boot I found my system
without any damage. It was not bad. But as Berthold Brecht
once said "The curtain down, but all questions still open."

Thank you,

Lusitano