Will this partitioning plan I have work?

Rehumanize · 02-24-2008, 04:29 PM

I'm dual booting WinXP (SP2) and Debian Etch. I don't use Windows much at all anymore, only every once in a while for playing a game with friends and such. I'd like to wipe the Xp partition clean, resize it, give some space to my Debian install, and re-install XP but on a much smaller partition.

I plan to format the XP partition in GParted. Then I will shrink the partition, and enlarge my debian partitions. Then I'll just install windows on the small partition.

Will this conflict with Grub? I have a feeling that once I install xp that I might be locked out of the grub menu, and have no way of booting into Debian.

Here is an outline of my disk:

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 58.5 GB, 58506416640 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7113 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        3916    31455238+   7  HPFS/NTFS (Windows)
/dev/sda2            3917        4308     3148740    b  W95 FAT32 (Shared)
/dev/sda3            4309        5056     6008310   83  Linux     (/)
/dev/sda4            5057        7113    16522852+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5            5057        5150      755023+  82  Linux swap (Swap)
/dev/sda6            5151        7113    15767766   83  Linux      (/Home)

Any advice is appreciated.

jailbait · 02-24-2008, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rehumanize

Will this conflict with Grub? I have a feeling that once I install xp that I might be locked out of the grub menu, and have no way of booting into Debian.

Yes, XP will overwrite the grub entry in your MBR. I suggest that after you install XP that you boot your Debian install CD into rescue mode. Use the rescue CD to boot into Debian and then reinstall Grub on the MBR.

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Steve Stites

Rehumanize · 02-24-2008, 08:23 PM

Ah yes, forgot that I could boot up with the rescue disk. Alright, thanks a lot!