Help!

Hi, make sure you have a backup of everything valuable in the Windows partition before trying to resize it.

I've never resized Windows installation with Debian installer (the one 64Studio uses), so i cannot help you, sorry. I've done it with Ubuntu Live CD, but it should be just as possible with Debian installer too, as far as i can understand. Anyone else who knows how to proceed?

I wouldn't try to resize the Windows partition from the installer. You can use an application like gparted from a live CD. Also, you can try Partition Magic from Windows. Once you have a new ext3 partition, try the installation again. Then you'll be able to resize it to get, at least, one partition mounted at / and another swap. It's strongly recommended a third one mounted at /home

I have a doubt though: is it really possible to resize a bootable Windows partition from the Debian installer? I don't think so, as this case seems to confirm. Anyway, as I said, I wouldn't even try it. Regards Pablo

I always have one somewhere as an emergency tool...

Remember to run a filesystem check aka. defrag on your Windows system before attempting to install any Linux system. Filesystem fragmentation is b**ch when it happens; you might get your Windows to boot - but in a useless condition.

Live-CD is a great tool, I agree. Don't leave home without it.

Greetings all

Ed said:

"I am trying to install 64 studio dual-booted with Windows XP (bet you hear this a lot (=)
Everything seems to go fine until I get to partitioning the hard disk."

Exactly the question I've been wanting to ask for a while, Ed. Thanks for beating me to it.

After reading the answers above, I managed to get 64Studio installed as a dual boot system alondside Windows XP, with both on the same drive. At startup, you can choose which one you want to boot using GRUB.

Here's what I did:

1. Defragment the hard drive first, using Win XP system tools.
2. Backup any and all important data (just to be safe).
3. Get hold of a live CD that has Gparted on it. In my case, this was included in a version of Puppy Linux (2.12) which I found lying around at home, much to my delight.
4. Shutdown, restart using whatever live CD you have, then resize the Windows partition using Gparted. It's almost too easy to do. It takes a while, about 30 minutes in my case, but it did exactly what was required. No mess, no fuss. Great tool, this Gparted!
5. After this is done, shutdown again, insert the 64studio disk and try again. When it comes to the "Partitioning" section, 64studio then picked up the new partition (I chose "Use largest available space" or something like that), and it was plain sailing from then on.
6. The option of installing GRUB also needs to be chosen, so that you get a choice of which OS to use at startup.

Thanks for the info, everyone. I'm now the proud owner of a classy 64studio installation! Next step is to figure out how Jack works...

Cheers

Dan