phunni Posted December 30, 2003 Report Share Posted December 30, 2003 I know there are loads about this in other posts - but I couldn't find a clear answer. I've just ordered a new laptop which will have Win XP Pro on it. I want to dual boot linux with the pre-installed windows. Can the mdk installer (9.1) safely handle the resize of the ntfs partition or should I be looking for another tool? If the latter, can anyone recommend any reliable, open source, tools for doing this job? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzylizard Posted December 31, 2003 Report Share Posted December 31, 2003 From everything that I have read, the only tool that will safely and reliably resize ntfs partitions is partition magic. However, it is far from open source or free. It is reliable and non-destructive though. The next best tool that I have heard about is the one bundled with Mandrake. Your choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leo Posted January 3, 2004 Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 I used a free version of Acronis PartitionExpert 2003 on my W2K laptop and it resized fine. The only issue I had was that I created an unformatted partition and when I rebooted it seemed to think it was some kind of boot sector (no ill effects just a bit worrying to see) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polemicz Posted January 3, 2004 Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 If you are still waiting for the new system you may want to first off reinstall Win xp and use its own partitioning to set up an NTFS partition and a Fat32. I know this is easily done with win 2000 and assume this is still ok in xp. If it is a fresh system with no data that can be messed up you can also try mandrake and there is no loss. Also why not 9.2, as I understand the NTFS tools are better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fissy Posted January 3, 2004 Report Share Posted January 3, 2004 if its a clean system, none of your files are on it, and you'ev been given a windows recovery disc, take the 1 in 100 risk you'll have to use the recovery disc cause mandrake screwed it up. Its always worked fine for me. NB. sometimes mandrake just won't resize the ntfs drive. go into windows and look in disk defragmenter, there might be "unmovable files" What you have to do is turn of the page file windows creates, and turn it back on after you've installed mandrake. have fun :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted January 5, 2004 Report Share Posted January 5, 2004 I disagree with most of the posts... any resize of a journalised file system has a very good chance of being disastorous to the data on that partition, due to the nature of a jounalised file system. FAT32 is the only filesystem that can be happily resized without loss, if you are going to resize NTFS be prepared for Winblows going bye-bye. There is a chance that it will resize without a problem, but I wouldn't bet on it. The manufacturer of your lappy should provide you with a XP CD, so why not setup a little FAT32 partition for it and reinstall windows? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fissy Posted January 5, 2004 Report Share Posted January 5, 2004 if its a clean install of windows and you have the discs, why not take the risk of having to spend 45 minutes reinstalling windows? i think it is probably safe, if it wasn't, lots of people using mandrake for the first time would be taking their boxed mdk back with a few words to say! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonMage Posted January 6, 2004 Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 Mandrake's own ntfs resizer give me no problem whatsoever. The same also with qtparted (which can be located in any newer knoppix version). Of course, backing up your data is essential before doing this kind of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polemicz Posted January 6, 2004 Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 As there is no data to lose there can be no data loss. Also you can't do a full Windows install in 45 minutes! There are many reboots and then you will have drivers, etc to install, and recent patches. A long process as I can attest in having to do this to one of my son's machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted January 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 The laptop will be "fresh" so there will be little or no data to lose. I'll take a look at the restore CDs, but it sounds like it's a minimal risk to use mandrake's tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland Posted January 6, 2004 Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 ... it sounds like it's a minimal risk to use mandrake's tool. ... as long as you reboot after each change even if not asked to .. roland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted January 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 Do you mean reboot in the middle of the mdk install process? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 (edited) Do you mean reboot in the middle of the mdk install process? Oops didn't saw the post. May be too late but .. On the install process I don't know .. with Diskdrake I do know in my expense that if it ever says something like "your partition number have been renumbered, hdax is now hdax+1" or something like that then better reboot. If I was you, even in the install process. see link [EDIT] .. and http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/show_bug.cgi?id=5999 [/EDIT] ( I would be interested to know if it has been fixed on 10.0 cooker ) roland Edited January 13, 2004 by roland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonMage Posted January 13, 2004 Report Share Posted January 13, 2004 Phunni, since you are getting a laptop, make sure that you have actual windows XP disks instead of a rescue disk that basically connect to a hidden partition in your harddrive to "restore" your windows XP. This hidden partition can be hell to any partitioning software available. Also, if you somehow hose your windows XP partition, you can reinstall it with little problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted January 18, 2004 Report Share Posted January 18, 2004 If its an Acer lappy, Partition Magic can't see the hidden partition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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