Partitioning Linux Problem

Hey fellas, i'm trying to give Unbuntu a try and i'm having trouble with partition magic. i have a 100 gig hd sony FE and i can't get it to get the install partiton ready. I keep getting error 37 unable to lock drive? I even tried used the livecd to do it autmomatically but of course that didn't work either. Any veterans of linux help would be appreciated. It seems great running off the cd but i would prefer to dual boot and become more familiar with the OS. THanks -jb

 

You know with Partition Magic, you have to reboot to apply the changes because the disk can't be repartitioned while it's in use, right?

So, boot into windows, open PM, repartition the drive, reboot, let the drive repartition itself, then reboot to your livecd to install ubuntu.

 

I hate partition magic. I like parted. Go get a live linux disk that has Gparted or QTparted on it. Then you will boot from the live CD, open up a terminal/console, and run Gparted or QTParted. this will easily allow you to reformat/resize your disk. One thing: Make SURE that the windows is degfragged before trying to do this. I ran defrag until there was nothing changing. Then I repartitioned the drive. I used qutparted from a Kanotix CD. I would think that a ubuntu CD should have a version of parted on it, but I don't know.

 

The ubuntu 6.06 livecd includes gparted. Just checked

 

PM only works right if you boot from a floppy drive. Iv'e used it for years and it is the only way that is bullet prrof. Never had any luck with installed versions.

 

You can boot from a CD with the newer versions of Partition Magic, but I agree with you on not using an installed version, blue68f100

 

i've used an installed version of pm to partition my drive many times without incident -shrug- i think i have version 8.

 

gparted/qtparted are frontends for libparted: http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/manual/parted.html

Excerpt:
2.4.13 resize
...
Note that Parted can manipulate partitions whether or not they have been defragmented, so you do not need to defragmenting the disk before using Parted.

 

Here is a link to some videos that show how to use gparted and prepare your HDD for dual booting windows and linux! Saw this today at newsforge. http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/07/20/1654251

 

Oh, and the newest version of gparted is out. It rocks! It will resize and move partitions, or so I read. http://kanotix.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-21014.html

 

That's awesome. This is exactly what I needed. I've been wanting to move my data partition to the end of the drive and move my Vista partition back to the middle and decrease my XP partition so that I can allocate more space to Vista. I hope it works... I'll have to try it sometime next weekend.

 

Hello everyone,

I was given a FZ340E this month and I'm dying to get rid of this bloatware-plagued Vista Home Premium. However, I'll have to keep either Vista Ultimate or XP due to work obligations. Anyway, it'd be great if someone could help me with the following doubts:

a) Which OS should I install first? Linux or Windows?

b) I often use tomsrtbt ( http://www.toms.net/rb/) FDISK to format and create partitions. It's far from being user-friendly but it does the job. Which other applications have you been using for creating and formatting partitions (EXT3, EXT2, NTFS, FAT32...)?

c) Do you usually create a partition for data which is shared between the two OSs?

c) I usually create a small partition at the beginning of my HD for boot management purposes and then the rest of the partitions. Will I be able to do that and still preserve Windows recovery hidden partition?

d) Is battery life a major issue when using Linux?

e) Any comments on Linux drivers for FZ340E would be truly appreciated.

Cheers,

Leco