[PLUG] partition question

Fred James fredjame at fredjame.cnc.net
Sat Oct 31 00:33:31 UTC 2009


Bill Barry wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 4:39 PM, Randy Stapilus <stapilus at ridenbaugh.com> wrote:
>   
>> I've decided to try installing a Linux Mint, and it's been going well
>> so far. I'm just getting into the partitioning, and it has asked me
>> something that makes me nervous. I'm going for a dual boot with XP,
>> which has already been on the machine.
>>
>> Mint's installer has gotten to "starting up the partitioner." I now
>> have in front of me a box that says, "Unmount partitions that are in
>> use?" It says, "The installer has detected that the following disks
>> have mounted partitions: /dev/sdb  Do you want the installer to try
>> to unmount the partitions on these disks before continuing? If you
>> leave them mounted, you will not be able to create, delete or resize
>> partitions on these disks, but you may be able to install to exiting
>> partitions there."
>>
>> Yes and no buttons below, with the "no" indicating default.
>>     
>
> This step of unmounting is not dangerous, but you are wandering into
> dangerous territory. Are you going to resize a partition, or use an
> empty partition that already exists?  Just make sure you don't delete
> the partition containing your XP installation, but only resize it.
>
> Bill
>   
I have also heard that it is a good idea to "defrag" the MS partition(s) 
first - compact it all down to one end of the partition - they said this 
was because MS (or maybe it was an OEM?) puts important stuff out there 
on the disk that might get whacked during a Linux resizing (any truth in 
that?)  My personal experience was that Linux could successfully resize 
MS up through XP, but not beyond (say as in Vista?) - Your mileage may 
vary, possibly depending on the OEM?
Regards
Fred James

PS:  It is always advisable to have a good recovery plan in place, just 
in case - for me personally, I never cared if MS survived on my personal 
machine(s).  I did try to keep MS on my laptop(s) for easier warranty 
service but when V showed up that went poof - oh, well





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