Aomighty Posted May 15, 2005 Report Share Posted May 15, 2005 Ok, so I want to install Mandrake 10.1 as a dual-boot system with Win XP and I've done this before and it's worker fine for me. The only problem is that right now my Windows installation uses my whole hard drive (80 GB), and I want to resize it to about 40 or 45 GB and give Linux the rest. When I go to resize it with "Custom Partitioning" in DiskDrake with Mdk 10.1 CD1, it warns me about possible data loss. Now, I've already run Chkdsk and defgragged it multiple times. Do I have to worry about losing data? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solarian Posted May 15, 2005 Report Share Posted May 15, 2005 It's always a possibility. I suggest you try resizing with some Windows specific software. I think Symantec has one good. Think it was called "Partition magic". Linux is not particulary good when dealing with NTFS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baillie Posted May 15, 2005 Report Share Posted May 15, 2005 I used Partition Magic 8 to resize my NTFS partition, when I installed around a week ago, simple to use, and although not quick I didn't lose any of my data. I sized my NTFS Win XP partition down to 25Gb, created a new FAT32 partition for file swapping between the OS'es, and left the rest unallocated, and used the Custom Partitioning option during the Mandrake Install. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamw Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 diskdrake shouldn't be any less dangerous than Partition Magic. There's *always* a theoretical loss of data in any such application, it'd be irresponsible not to warn of it, but if it's a clean and defragged disk the chance is very small and no worse than any commercial app. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaner Posted May 18, 2005 Report Share Posted May 18, 2005 I installed 10.1 Community a few weeks ago. I used the partition tool on the install, everything went very smoothly. It booted right up, no problem, and XP booted fine too. I have a laptop with a 40 GB hd, it had one partition NTFS. Mandrake handled it well. I did the defrag, disk clean up and backed up all important data. Mandrake for the clean install and partition tool. Shane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest szaka Posted May 23, 2005 Report Share Posted May 23, 2005 diskdrake shouldn't be any less dangerous than Partition Magic. There's *always* a theoretical loss of data in any such application, it'd be irresponsible not to warn of it, but if it's a clean and defragged disk the chance is very small and no worse than any commercial app. Please let me make a few comments as the author of the NTFS resizer (ntfsresize) used by DiskDrake. If NTFS isn't clean then ntfsresize's consistency check catches it and refuses to do any modification to NTFS. Fragmented NTFS also isn't a problem because ntfsresize is able to relocate data safely and the previous, three years old ntfsresize, not being able to do the same, restricted resizing to a safe size (the last used block/cluster). I'm documenting what may go wrong in the non-NTFS related components/parts during NTFS partition resizing at http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/ntf...ml#troubleshoot Additional Mandrake/Mandriva related notes: - if DiskDrake can't unallocate enough space then it switches to destructive partitioning and gives the warning "After resizing partition X, all data on this partition will be lost". If one ignores this warning then he/she will lose his/her Windows data. Partition Wizard in Mandrake 9.1 doesn't warn, it just goes ahead. - Mandrake 10.0 may create unbootable Windows partition by corrupting the partition table due to a filesystem independent, disk geometry detection problem ("feature") in Linux 2.6 kernels. And naturally I agree about the importance to warn users and have regular backups. There are several situations when things can go really very badly, like power outage, accidently kicking the power button, hardware crash, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamw Posted May 24, 2005 Report Share Posted May 24, 2005 Thanks for that, szaka. (/me has never done a backup in his life, ah, the recklessness of youth...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CupofDice Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 Hey, I just got Mandrake 10.1 (3 Cds) from xplinux.biz and instead of just annoying people with another post, I will just ask my question here. Comp Specs- White Box Systemax Windows XP Home SP2 (takes up whole HD) 76.58 GB HD (though it was supposed to be a 40 gig HD) C: total size is 66.6 GB with 55.9 GB free space and is NTFS D: (Something to do with System Rescue) total size is 9.98 GB with 7.49 GB free space and is FAT32 223 MBs Ram I want a dual boot with 10 GB for Mandrake 10.1. I know that I need to shrink Windows XP with a program like Partition Magic, but I was wondering if I could do it with DiskDrake. I know that is sort of answered here, but I have been checking out Disk Drake before I got Mandrake, and all the information is sort of confused. So, I just need to know if I can use Mandrake 10.1 Disk Drake to shrink my Windows XP, and have Mandrake set everything up WITHOUT Partition Magic. I just want to set up the / root and swap partition. No need for XP and Mandrake to talk with each other. Also some info about exactly how do I partition with DiskDrake will rock. Thanks for any help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Scrimpshire Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 (edited) DiskDrake during the install will resize your NTFS partition no problem. There are kazillions of posts here about how to use DiskDrake to partition and what recommended sizes, but I can give a quick summary Click on Custom Disk Partitioning. Click on NTFS partition Click Resize Resize it down. If it says something like 'After resizing this partition, all data will be lost', click 'Cancel'...you probably didn't defrag well enough or the disk is just too full to not do a destructive resize. Click on the empty space left after resizing and choose to make a new partition. I strongly recommend 'Ext3' for the type. Select a mount point for that partition. Do the same for each partition you want to create. I very very strongly recommend a separate /home partition, so / /swap /home With a separate /home partition, you get to keep and not format it when you upgrade and so you get to keep all your personal settings for all your users' apps. Edited June 7, 2005 by Steve Scrimpshire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CupofDice Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 (edited) Just installed it, and everything went fine. Regretting not making FAT32 partition to talk to Windows. Thanks. (Reinstalled and made a Share partition) Edited June 7, 2005 by CupofDice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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