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New Laptop

HairyMcbiker
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Re: New Laptop

Pretty sure you can have 4 primary and an extended on the same drive.  Undecided
VileReynard
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Re: New Laptop

One (and only one) of the primary partitions may be an extended partition.  Roll_eyes

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HairyMcbiker
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Re: New Laptop

OK just checked, (using a VM) I was mistaken  you need to use EBR to get more than 4 primary partitions (which isn't supported by anything over 3 years old)
You will need to backup one of the PRIMARY ones first, I would suggest the small fat32 one to your M$ in to a folder (you may have to mount it using the disk manager). Then delete the partition (note its name if it has one) and re-create it inside the extended partition (just create a small partition the right size at the end of the Linux ones as it will not be used) then copy the contents back in inside M$ and delete the folder (or leave it)
colintivy
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Re: New Laptop

Cor, the plot thickens!
Firstly, I see that I was entirely wrong to say that it is not possible to shrink an NTFS partition, looking, less hurriedly, at the write-up on M$ shrinking revealed that it is one of two that are shrinkable. I also note that in the M$ version of the gparted display, the C drive partition has a different background than the others. In gparted the existence of an extended partition had a dotted outline to show that. Are they one and the same?
The small 99MB partition is for "HP Tools" only uses 10MB seems a good idea for juggling the pack. I am not sure of its value anyway. I must say that I thought that keeping the drive split into two roughly equal separate parts would be the way to go but the limit on 4 primary partitions is a stumbling block. I have not heard of EBR, must look it up. Certainly the mechanics of setting all this up needs careful forethought.
  C.  Roll_eyes
VileReynard
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Re: New Laptop

Notice that on the two disks shown below that partitions enclosed in an extended partition are coloured light blue, whilst primary partitions aren't.
BTW ext3 has a slightly different colour to ext4.  Shocked
Here are two disks with 3 primary partitions each:-

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HairyMcbiker
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Re: New Laptop

"Look & Feel" they will all HAVE to be different to stop the law suits flying  Crazy
Ellis
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Re: New Laptop

Quote from: shutter
From my downloads folder
Linuxmint-11-gnome-dvd-32bit.iso    887,800kb
and don`t forget to also download  B43 installer package ( to get your wireless working! ! !)...

The B43 doesn't always work, I have a Broadcom 43xx wifi in my laptop (an old Acer) and the only OS that has got it to work was Fedora 15 and that without downloading B43. For that laptop with Ubuntu v10.04 LTS I have to use my ASUS Wifi dongle. My new Acer laptop works OK so apparently doesn't have Broadcom Wifi.
colintivy
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Re: New Laptop

HB  Re: Reply #62
I am getting nearer to doing the repartitioning as you suggest. One final (?) query, you suggest parking a folder containing the HP guph in space on the extended partition after the linux stuff which is OK, but I am unclear where or how to get the contents back into the M$ partitions. Clearly  Win 7 expects to find it in its own partition and there is now no space for it. Advice please.
  Huh
HairyMcbiker
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Re: New Laptop

You copied the contents of the small partition to a folder - yes?
In W7 just move it back to a new partition at the end of the extended partition (so you have Linux (/ , home, & swap) then a small one for these files) if you create it as fat32 you will be able to see it in W7 disk manager just mount it temporarily and move the files to it then unmount it.
colintivy
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Re: New Laptop

That was quick HB, thanks.
I have not yet copied the little HP partition contents to a folder, I am only making quite sure that I have all the steps clear in my mind before doing anything. I had intended to format the new partition to FAT 32 and give it exactly the same name as it had before. I would be pleased if Win 7 will see it there despite being inside another partition, which it was not initially. It sounds basically simple as you describe it, let us hope that will be the case!!
  Cheesy Cheesy
HairyMcbiker
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Re: New Laptop

it won't be in another partition it will be a partition in its own right. When you use the M$ tool it will show 3 unknown partitions (the Linux ones) then the fat32 one, just click on it and make it a drive letter, copy the stuff over then remove the drive letter from the tool again.
colintivy
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Re: New Laptop

Hi HB!
Other work has prevented me from progressing with the HP laptop (Win 7 running well!) but it has eased off for Christmas. Have a good one if you can!
I have shrunk the Win 7 Partition to 250GB and put the contents of the little HP FAT 32 into a folder in My Documents (and on a CDR as an external back-up). In doing so I found that there are two folders in it looking as though they are concerned with BIOS. If they are for the whole system and therefore there is not the usual one lurking on the motherboard, I am worried that I could get into a problem during the removal of the little partition so that the extended partition can be created without a working BIOS temporarily.  This suggests to me that HP have chosen to make it difficult to manage the HD to include another OS by taking up the 4 primaries in the first place and making impracticable to just delete the HP Guph, or indeed Win 7 as well. Am I being cynical?
Views please.
ejs
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Re: New Laptop

Since a BIOS will work fine without a hard disk installed in the machine, the contents of the HP tools partition can't be that critical. A google search gave various things on HP forums suggesting the HP tools partition was either for updating the bios, or to allow Windows programs to access the bios settings. One of them also suggested that after making the recovery DVDs, then you could dispose of the recovery partition.
VileReynard
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Re: New Laptop

The BIOS will not check any hard disks for any HP crud - so it won't notice if it isn't there.  Grin

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colintivy
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Re: New Laptop

Hi Jeremy,
I got too excited by seeing the titles of the folders, I did make the point before that I was going to proceed carefully and had a horrible vision of not being able to boot up after the shuffling of the partitions. My cynical attitude to M$ and their associates does colour things a bit! I certainly did not seriously think that there was not a usual on-board BIOS and I guess that ejs is not far from expressing the truth.
Grin