434 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
434 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
Partition-Mass-Storage-Dummies-Linux-HOWTO
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Revision History
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Revision 6 2009-04-05 08:38:51 Revised by: jdd
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adding forgotten HOWTO header for wiki
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Revision 5 2009-04-05 08:35:01 Revised by: jdd
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adding link to the Partitions-and-mass-storage-HOWTO
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Revision 4 2009-03-30 18:34:19 Revised by: jdd
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remove headers to render to docbook
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Revision 3 2009-03-30 18:07:40 Revised by: jdd
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Revision 2 2009-03-30 17:58:09 Revised by: jdd
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Revision 1 2009-03-30 17:54:21 Revised by: jdd
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title change from sub page to full page (done with copy/paste)
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Table of Contents
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1. Partition-Mass-Storage-Dummies-Linux-HOWTO
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2. Licence
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3. Definitions
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3.1. Disks
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3.2. Partitions
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4. Making Room for Linux
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4.1. Using Windows
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4.2. Using Linux
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5. Images of the partitionning tools
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5.1. Windows XP
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5.2. Parted Magic
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5.3. openSUSE
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5.4. Mandriva
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5.5. Fedora
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5.6. Ubuntu Desktop
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5.7. Debian
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5.8. Others
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1. Partition-Mass-Storage-Dummies-Linux-HOWTO
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copyright (c) 2009 Jean-Daniel Dodin
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This HOWTO is about partitionning usual mass storage that can be
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magnetic rotating hard drives or Solid State Drives (SSD - including
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flash cards or USB keys).
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Writing the Partition HOWTO, I noticed that, as of year 2009, at least,
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partitionning is very complicated. However, most partitionning tasks can
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be done very easily with the appropriate tools, so this HOWTO for any
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people that want to understand the partitionning without going too
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deeply inside.
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A more complete partition use description can be found on the
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Partitions-and-mass-storage-HOWTO,
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[http://wiki.tldp.org/Partitions-and-mass-storage-HOWTO#] available for
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example here
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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2. Licence
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Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
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document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
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Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software
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Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and
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no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the
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section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
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[http://wiki.tldp.org/LdpWikiDefaultLicence#GNUFreeDocumentationLicense]
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GNU Free Documentation License
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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3. Definitions
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3.1. Disks
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Disks are usually made of rotating plates, read by magnetic heads.
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Tracks are circular parts of the plates. As we may have several plates,
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a stack of plate is seen as a cylinder. All the heads are moved at the
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same time, reading each it's track. All the tracks read at the same time
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are a cylinder as well.
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Each track is divided as sectors that can be 512 or 4k bytes long.
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So Mass Storage disks are nearly always described as "CHS", that is
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Cylinders number, Heads number, Sectors by track number, and the product
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of all these numbers gives the visible disk size.
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However, this have no meaning for SSD and even with true rotating hard
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drive, the CHS have absolutely no more any meaning! It keeps using only
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by inertia... so don't worry too much about these numbers, and if
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possible ignore them.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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3.2. Partitions
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Partition is from "part". A partition is a part of a drive with some
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special attributes.
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Computers makers seems pretty dumb when seeing how they keep
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underestimating the possible next disk size, so each year they have to
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issue a new standard. Disks firmware are buggy, so the software tools
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have to fix them - and do quite well the job.
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That is to say that understanding fully why the Partitionning tool
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choose to create the partitions the way they do is very complex. It's
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explained fully (or mostly) on the Partitions-and-mass-storage-HOWTO,
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you probably won't read and don't have to now.
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Windows makes little use of partitions. One can install as many Windows
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version he wants on the same partition (and often do). It may even
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proove difficult to install Windows on just an other drive on the same
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computer.
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Nor Unix nor Linux have any such problem. Just on the contrary, Linux
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love to use at least three partitions. This mean you can have as many
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Linux on your drive as you want, each on it's special part(ition) of the
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drive, erase the partition without losing your data (backup first is
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still better) for example. The two main Linux partitions are used for
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the system ("/" or "root") and the users data ("home"). The third
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("swap") is used to add some more memory and is written directly sector
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by sector by the system. You usually don't even see it.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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4. Making Room for Linux
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4.1. Using Windows
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Most of the time, your computer come with a paid Windows. If you are not
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an experienced Linux User, it's probably better to keep this Windows,
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just for safety in case you have to show your computer to the vendor
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tech (If your vendor is Linux fiendly you are lucky!). So you have to
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make room for your prefered Linux.
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If You have Windows XP, little luck. Most XP computers come with only
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one partition on the disk and XP don't know how to make it smaller (If
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you have two, see the next paragraph). What you have to do is to
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"defragment" the drive (look in disk properties, you will probably have
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to "verify" the drive first) - if the computer is brand new and never
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used, this is not necessary. The "defragmentation" makes the work easier
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for the Linux partitionner.
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If you have Windows Vista, go to Control center, Administration tools,
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Disk tools to see the actual disk partitionning. If you have luck, may
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be there is yet a "data" partition. If so, you have just to look where
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is this partition located and what it's size is. It will be used for
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Linux.
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If not, clic right on the system disk partition rectangle, you will see
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a resize option. Use it. Keep some room for Vista (50Gb, for example)
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and OK, you have now several partitions on your drive.
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If you see in this screen a small partition (usually around 9Gb), be
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specially cautious. This is the "system restore partition" that holds
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the Windows Vista (or XP) original system. Your computer manual should
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explain how to copy this to two DVD's. Do this before any use of your
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computer. Make notice of the size and place of this partition (it can be
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at the very beginning of the drive or at the very end), try to not erase
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it right now. Don't erase it during the computer insurance time.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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4.2. Using Linux
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You, as a dummy Linux user, have better use a very well known Linux
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Distribution. There are more than a hundred Linux distributions and I
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don't have used all of them, of course, so I can't be sure some of them
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couldn't erase your drive if ever you don't understand a question.
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However I'm rather sure Ubuntu, openSUSE, Mandiva, Red Hat Fedora, new
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Debian can be reasonably safe for a beginner.
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So launch the Linux install. Probably you will have to insert a Cd or
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DVD and run. May be you will install immediately or launch a live system
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(Linux working from memory, not from drive), then install froms there.
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Anyway, you will have to answer some basic questions and at a moment you
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will be asked if you want to keep windows or erase it. Beleive me, keep
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it for now, it will be easy to remove later.
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At this moment you will be presented a screen with a graphic of the
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proposed disk partitions. Scan it to verify the Windows partition is not
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touched - not formatted. It is probably labelled "NTFS" or "Windows".
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Verify also that the Windows system backup partition is not touched. It
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may not have any identified label. In some partitionner, the partition
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table may be called Disklabel.
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You may have to give Linux the name or position of the Vista partition
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created on the previous step. If your Windows is XP, you will be
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proposed to shrink the Windows Partition this is good.
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Then accept the partitionning sheme your distribution proposes. Do not
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try to be an expert. At install time, no good Linux Partition tool
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should erase a Windows system partition. If it does, write me, I will
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include a notice here.
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Modern Linux distributions are perfectly able to resize a Windows
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partition to make room to Linux. Let some room to Windows, though, if
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you plan to use it.
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So, in summary, trust your Linux install. Most install problems are
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user's problem, not Linux Distribution problems!!
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Do not try "LVM" or "RAID" for your first install. To use these things,
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read the hole Partitions-and-mass-storage-HOWTO.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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5. Images of the partitionning tools
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5.1. Windows XP
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Here you can see the XP tool for partitionning (french version). The
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partition is the dashed c: rectangle. You can see the contextual menu
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(right clic) with no resizing - the resizing option can be seen only in
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the Vista similar menu.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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If the computer used Windows for a while, you will have to verify and
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defragment the disk. This is found in the disk context menu, tab
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"tools". Defragmenting is re-organising the files in the disk. On the
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picture below, you see a badly fragmented disk. Vertical lines are
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files. To be able to shrink the partition with the Linux tools, you must
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have a large blank on the right of the rectangle on the defrag window.
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Even only one file on the right prevents resizing.
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If you can't resize, you can only backup all your data, make the
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partitionning (with Parted magic, for example), deleting all the disk,
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reinstall XP then install Linux. Given you will probably have to
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reinstall Windows from time to time, you can use this moment to make
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room for Linux.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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5.2. Parted Magic
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Parted Magic is a CD or USB key utility extremely usefull if you have to
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deal with partitions (find it with web search Probably
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[http://partedmagic.com/] http://partedmagic.com/). It allows
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repartitonning, resizing of partitions (if possible), and even search
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for lost partitions if you happen to have trashed your partition table
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(experts only). Do not confuse Parted Magic (free and open source) with
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the proprietary program Partition Magic (expensive).
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This tool is by far the more friendly. If you read this HOWTO you are
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probably not as Dummy as you may think, at least you are curious. So you
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may have benefits to use Parted magic at least to make one free
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partition the Linux installer will easily find and use (and certainly
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repartition again, that's normal).
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Here is the booting screen, you should be able to boot any computer with
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this CD.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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You start a graphical screen, as usual. You have icons at the bottom of
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the screen, clic to use. The partitionning tool is gparted, a very
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friendly tool. Notice gparted gives you immediately the free space in
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the Windows partition (the images here is that of a very small disk -
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only 8Gb).
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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Right clic on the desired partition gives you the needed options.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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In the resizing window, you can resize with the mouse (moving the
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partition limit with the mouse), or give a numerical value.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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Here is a view of a much bigger disk.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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On the same Parted Magic CD, you have also other tools, like "Testdisk".
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This one is much less friendly, but also very powerfull (and being so
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allow easily to destroy your disk). You will be able to use it sometime
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in the future, not now.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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5.3. openSUSE
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openSUSE is a friendly Linux Distribution, trying to reduce as much as
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possible the risk of removing accidentally files on the disk while
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installing.
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If you insert the openSUSE DVD in your drive when Windows is running,
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the DVD starts and propose to install Linux. It creates a special
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Windows starting menu and reboot to the install without any work to do
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for the user.
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On this first image, openSUSE warns that it's not possible to resize the
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XP disk, you have to remove it entirely if you want to install Linux.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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After I did quite a long cleaning work (including removing of unusefull
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files) on the XP disk, from inside XP, the diagnostic is better:
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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5.4. Mandriva
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Mandriva is even simpler, the options are to remove Windows or to use
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part of the drive.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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If you choose this solution, you have a windows to select what part of
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the disk is for XP, what part for Linux, as usual.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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5.5. Fedora
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Red Hat was the first really handy Linux Distribution, but for many
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years now, it's no more aimed to John Doe but to professionals (with the
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associated support and price). It's average user conterpart is
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Fedoraproject.
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Fedora can be dowloaded as a live CD, you start it (no boot options) and
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then clic on an icon to begin the installation.
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On the partitionning screen, Fedora give a drop down list of the choices
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possible, one is resizing (here the french screen)
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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The following screen is for the size, as usual.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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5.6. Ubuntu Desktop
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Ubuntu also have a friendly screen to resize partitions, but one have to
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go to "manual" to find it, what can be a little scary.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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It's the "edit" button that allows resizing. Do not format the XP main
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partition! This would erase all the content.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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5.7. Debian
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Debian is now as pretty as most distributions. The boot menu (first CD)
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gives more options than many - this is not a live CD.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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The partitionner. Choices are the same as Ubuntu does (Ubuntu is built
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upon Debian).
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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"Manual" have the resize option.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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You have to give a number - no slide, no view of the free space.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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5.8. Others
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Many Linux distributions are availalble, for example from
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[http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/] ibiblio. If any of
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these distributions uses gparted, it's possible very easily to partition
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a drive with them, as we could see with Parted magic. Here the example
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of Puppy Linux.
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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This distributions may be a bit more difficult to understand, but it
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installs is extremely low end hardware (256Mb ram for live cd, 2GB Hard
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drive).
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