Disk Partioning

[Mr. Tastix]

Today I was going to partition my drives. Something I've wanted to do for quite a while but never really gotten around to it. In particular, I want four/five extra partitions.

The first is the primary C:\ drive that Windows has anyway. The other 3 would be Extended Partitions primarily for storage, not boot options. A fifth Logical Partition is a possibility if I ever wish to install Linux or any other OS on my system (and I do want to install Linux, lol).

I have a 100GB HDD to work with (120GB but 20GB is reserved). I know it doesn't sound like much but it's all I've got and honestly, it's enough for what I wanted to do. The 3 Extended Partitions would be all for storage, all 20GB in size (so that's 60GB with 40GB space still on the C:\ drive).

The extra 40GB would be just messed around with. Because Linux takes shit all space (I don't even think Ubuntu, which I have, uses 10GB, just under IIRC).

Of course, what I found out today is no partitioning software works with Windows Vista. Well, Paragon's Partitioning Manager apparently does work but it didn't for me, and I tried several fucking times. Even tried using this and this guides.

So my question is what? Simple. Has anyone ever successfully managed to partition their disks, has anyone tried to but failed and lastly, can anyone help me to partition my own drives? If it's even possible with what I want to do.

[Alistair]

I've always partitioned from inside Linux for a few reasons. Its safe, reads nearly all filesystems and is free.

[Mr. Tastix]

Yeah, I've heard it's so much easier with GParted. The problem is that I don't really want to uninstall Windows Vista and with GParted you apparently need the original Windows Vista install discs. I don't have though because, like most Hewlett-Packard computers, I have a recovery drive not install CD's.

Vista has it's own default partitioning software but it's so shit. You cannot partition your own amount, only a select amount at any given time and sometimes it doesn't work. I was thinking about reformatting my laptop to try it (and to clean up some shit with the registry, among other things) but I honestly don't have the patience to do so atm.

[Alistair]

Most Linux distros have a built in partitioner in the installer. You can resize your Vista partition and partition the left over space. Linux will then install its own bootloader (grub or lilo) to ensure everything is picked up at the bootscreen.

Does that solve your problem?

[Mr. Tastix]

Yes, it should. Because I want 5 partitions anyone to dual-boot some sort of Linux distro. I have three currently, dunno which one to install though.

I have Ubuntu (tried it, didn't mind it either). I've only got Red Hat 7 and SuSE 10 (and there's 11 out now, lol). Ubuntu isn't the latest version either, in fact, I'm pretty sure none of them are lol. Regardless, what does everything think of these ones? I ask for these ones because I don't want to download a large hunk of crap if I have to, I don't want to waste the bandwidth doing so.

[Leenuks]

Redhat 7 is rather old. Redhat is now only a commercial version.
The free version is called Fedora Core.

I use Ubuntu myself.

As for partitioning I too use Gparted. http://gparted.sourceforge.net/index.php
Download the ISO and burn to a cd. It boots to its own desktop and runs Gparted as a GUI.

I dont have vista and never will so I cannot comment on any problems there.

[Mr. Tastix]

I've been looking into it extensively since that post, I plan on getting Fedora but not yet because of bandwidth issues. As for Gparted, tried that. But, as far as I've read, I cannot use it because I don't have the original CD's (HP pretty much never supplies you with them, just a recovery partition to reinstall shit). Tried anyway, couldn't get the ISO to run regardless (wasted 3 CD-R's trying, lol).

I'm going to see what happens if I make a backup CD for my recovery partition but even so, the ISO still won't load for Gparted.

[Leenuks]

EDIT: pays to read the previous post properly first.. lol

You might have a corrupt iso. Try downloading it again or use Alcohol 120 to burn the iso.

I have Nero but its crap.

[Mr. Tastix]

Yeah, I know what it does, lol. But I'm just quoting what I've read and what I've tried. I'll try Alcohol 120%, didn't use Nero for it, I used DAEMON Tools which I've heard is pretty good and, in fact, it is incredibly easy to use.

[Mr. Tastix]

Eh, stupid edit limit lol. Anyways, that Gparted did work after I used Alcohol 120%. Worked like a charm, so that's sweet.

Also realised I spelt partitioning wrong in the topic title...