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10-31-2007, 05:55 PM
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#1
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Member
Registered: Feb 2007
Posts: 140
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Partition Re-size with Feisty Fawn
I'm trying to resize the Ubuntu partition on my 80gb hard drive so I can put Windows XP on there as a dual boot option. I placed the hard drive in my USB enclosure and ran the resize program on my laptop. Once I told it to resize the partition to only take up 40gb of available space I hit the run button and my led light went crazy. I assume it was doing something but the progress bar didn't move after an hour. Since I've never used this program before I may not be aware that this is normal. Can anyone tell me if this is normal behavior?
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10-31-2007, 11:20 PM
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#2
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Member
Registered: Jan 2004
Location: USA
Distribution: macOS, OpenBSD
Posts: 669
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I'm not quite sure if it is. I'd assume that after an entire hour it should finish.
Resizing a partition that has data on it means moving the data out of places on the disk that are going to be allocated to the new partition. So, it would take longer. Resizing a "blank" partition just means respecifying the size of the partition, start/end blocks, etc. I don't know if that program does this for you (but don't be scared if I say this, I could be wrong).
Now as for putting XP on there, the order (if you didn't already know) is generally windows first, then linux, as windows tends to erase the MBR and with it LILO or GRUB (meaning upon starting your computer it will go straight to windows). So just keep that in mind.
-AM
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11-01-2007, 08:40 AM
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#3
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LQ Newbie
Registered: May 2006
Location: Northern Wisconsin
Distribution: Fedora
Posts: 3
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I have never resized a linux partition but done a lot of FAT and NTFS partitions. If the data is heavily fragmented then it will take as long to move the data as a windows defrag or a full virus scan would which could be several hours. In the end you have to read every byte on the drive and move it possibly several times. If the drive light was working then it was accessing the drive and probably moving data. If you interupted the process then it is possible that you lost the data and the Linux installation is unusable.
The previous poster is right about windows first then Linux. Windows likes to own the whole drive and assumes that he does so screws up the MBR on you.
I prefer to use Knoppix boot CD and QTParted for resizing partiions. In your case if you have done that you would not have had to remove the hard drive and since your desktop is probably faster than your laptop and the internal data channels in your desktop would be faster than the external data channels of your desktop the Knoppix option would probably have been faster. Your idea was a good one and I will remember it for the future but in your case it is possible that the process would have taken several hours.
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11-01-2007, 11:35 AM
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#4
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Member
Registered: Dec 2005
Posts: 46
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Recover the boot loader
I had a problem not too long ago where I installed XP after Kubuntu, and luckily I found this article to help me recover the boot loader and not have to re-install everything.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Re...tallingWindows
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11-02-2007, 10:49 AM
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#5
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Member
Registered: Feb 2007
Posts: 140
Original Poster
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Okay.....thanks to everyone for responding to my post but since this sounds like a possible headache in the making for me I'd like to know if I can simply put Windows XP on another hard drive and mount it in my desktop computer and download grub onto Ubuntu? Will GRUB recognize the Windows XP drive and allow me to access it at boot-up?
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11-02-2007, 11:41 AM
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#6
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Member
Registered: Jan 2004
Location: USA
Distribution: macOS, OpenBSD
Posts: 669
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ordinary12
Okay.....thanks to everyone for responding to my post but since this sounds like a possible headache in the making for me I'd like to know if I can simply put Windows XP on another hard drive and mount it in my desktop computer and download grub onto Ubuntu? Will GRUB recognize the Windows XP drive and allow me to access it at boot-up?
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If you put a second hdd into your system and install XP onto just that, you'll need to make sure that GRUB is on the master drive (someone correct me if I'm wrong) -- it probably already is anyway. Yes, I believe GRUB can boot another OS if it is on another disk, but it will not auto-detect and auto-configure itself upon boot for you if that is what you are asking.
So, you'll need to edit the config file yourself or reinstall it from within linux (where you can just point to the drive and it'll find an installation, etc etc).
I'd suggest reading through that link/tutorial that monty_2487 provided.
-AM
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11-06-2007, 08:41 AM
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#7
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LQ Newbie
Registered: May 2006
Location: Northern Wisconsin
Distribution: Fedora
Posts: 3
Rep:
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Windows and Linux and Grub
Ok you can do what you want, no problem but you have to install windows on the system you are going to run it on. XP Looks at the hardware and creates a profile and if you install Windows on one system then move it to another it probably won't boot. I am assuming that is what you are talking about installing windows and mounting it on your system.
Also again windows likes to own the system and I have never been able to install windows on a slave drive or secondary drive. So you would have to unplug your Linux system, make your second drive the master, then install windows, then re-pin the drives back to master(Linux) and slave(windows) so that when you boot it boots to the primary active partition/drive to Grug.
Then you have to edit the boot config file to add the windows system. This is the easiest part of this whole process.
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11-08-2007, 05:28 AM
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#8
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Member
Registered: Sep 2004
Posts: 38
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Back to re-sizing because it really is not that difficult.
You don't tell us what file system you are trying to re-size. Reiserfs can be re-sized whilst mounted but I don't think that ext2/3 can.
Re-sizing can be done on the command line, but if you are not sure of the process then download yourself a copy of the GParted live CD. This is very easy to use and fairly self-explanatory. It is also useful for creating and deleting partitions if you require a GUI to do this.
Dual booting WinXP and Linux, again, is not that difficult. It does not really matter which you install first but, as it has already been pointed out, XP installed second will overwrite your MBR. If that is the case then just enter a grub shell and reinstall it. Don't forget to add your entries to the grub menu.lst
Hope this helps.
Richard
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11-08-2007, 11:21 AM
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#9
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Member
Registered: Feb 2007
Posts: 140
Original Poster
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That sounds great but after I reinstalled Windows XP it did exactly what you said it would do and overwrote my MBR. I decided to give it the whole hard drive and resize it with an Ubuntu installation. I lost everything. I'd like to know how to avoid this in the future. When I installed Windows XP on the original partition it had last time I noticed that the Ubuntu saw it's old partition out there but since I wasn't sure what to do in order to salvage it I decided to start from scratch.
You're telling me that I could have saved my original Ubuntu partition by using the live cd in some way? Please give me instructions on how to do this in case it happens again.
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11-08-2007, 11:57 AM
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#10
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Member
Registered: Aug 2007
Location: Ottawa
Distribution: Arch Linux/Kubuntu/OpenSUSE
Posts: 300
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When installing windows 2nd, you have to expect it to overwrite the MBR. Then afterwards simply overwrite the MBR once again with Grub using a recovery disk. You may have to manually edit the menu.lst file to create the Ubuntu and Windows entries depending on the recovery disk used.
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11-09-2007, 10:25 AM
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#11
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Member
Registered: Dec 2005
Posts: 46
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The link I posted had a step-by-step to get GRUB re-installed after XP overthrew it. It doesn't take a long time, you just needed to print it out and go through the steps and then you've got your old Ubuntu partition back and XP as well.
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11-26-2007, 03:53 PM
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#12
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Member
Registered: Aug 2003
Distribution: Ubuntu 6.10 / SUSE 10.1
Posts: 56
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One more caveat with Windows installation
Something I haven't seen mentioned here that is important if you are installing Window and Linux on a machine: Windows insists on booting from the primary partition on the first Master hard drive. The entire installation of Windows doesn't have to exist there, but it won't boot from anywhere else. So putting Windows on a second hard drive and then changing the drive to a slave won't work.
If your Linux installation is already on a primary partition, you can create another (small) primary partition on your primary master, then install Windows to boot off of that partition but to install on the other drive. Then restore GRUB as detailed in the link posted by monty_2487.
If you really want Windows on the same physical drive you already have Linux on, you can resize the drive as detailed in previous posts (e.g. Knoppix CD and QTParted), but do not allow windows to do anything to your Linux partition(s) because it will mess them up. After installing Windows, fix GRUB.
Another alternative is to use a third party boot loader, such as Partition Magic or System Commander, but they cost some $. They handle non-destructive resizing of partitions, as well as managing booting your operating systems. They also will handle installation of new operating systems and recovering the boot sector so everything will work. Unfortunately, they also require Windows to install. There are also free ones such as "GAG d" by Softpedia, but I haven't ever used them and don't know how good they are. The big advantage of GAG d is that it will install without Windows.
So you can recover from installing Windows second, but it will likely be a bit of a headache.
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