Partition Problems

rctneil

rctneil

rctneil

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Joined
31 Jan 2007
Posts
1,860
Hey,
I wish to install Ubuntu onto a partition on my Asus Eee Pc 1000He netbook.

I basically want to end up with:

Windows 7 on one partition
Ubuntu on another partiton
A 3rd partition solely for data that can be shared between the two OS's

At the moment the partitions are:

Windows: at 73.06GB
Unallocated at 7.77GB
Linux at 31.99GB
Unallocated at 29.30GB
Another Partition set to hidden at 4.89GB
Another Partition showing up as unknown at 47.07MB

Basically, I want to keep my current Windows partition as is. Ubuntu has NOT yet been installed but will be on the 31.99GB partition.

I wish to merge both of the Unallocated areas together to make my data drive.

I have NO idea what the 47MB partition is.

And I am GUESSING that the 4.89GB partition is the normal ASUS recovery partition for factory defaults which I DO want to keep.


I have entered GParted on Ubuntu Live CD to try and sort the partitions out but I can't figure out how the merge the two unallocated bits together as 1 partition. IF I try to make a new partition as just one bit of the unallocated space then it won;t allow me and says I cannot have more than 4.

Can anyone help me out with what I need to do and how I can do it?

Thanks

Regards,
Neil
 
MBR disks (which yours is) can only have 4 primary partitions although one can be set as an extended partition to hold further logical partitions. Now I can't remember if there are any problems booting from an extended partition or not. If you can't then you're going to have a problem since you'll need to leave the two hidden partitions as is and your Windows and Linux installs would use up the remaining 2 primaries.

I think what you'll need to do is nuke the existing Linux partition and create a single extended partition consisting of the space currently taken up by the 2 unallocated bits and the Linux partition. Hopefully you'll then be able to create two logical partitions in there (1 Linux and 1 shared).
 
If that was my machine, I'd start a fresh, give 50gb to the windows OS, not sure how much for ubuntu, guessing 10-20? and the rest as the data partition
 
ok. Currently I cannot start afresh as I already ahve Windows installed and don't want to reinstall it at the current time. I'll see if I can merge the 2 unallocated bits toegther with the partition I ahve ready for linux then split it up how I want.


I ahve been reading about how I can access my windows drive from within linux but it all sounds a bit complicated. Why is it sooo complicated to do this? and what is the easiest and best way of doing it?
 
rctneil said:
ok. Currently I cannot start afresh as I already ahve Windows installed and don't want to reinstall it at the current time. I'll see if I can merge the 2 unallocated bits toegther with the partition I ahve ready for linux then split it up how I want.
Click to expand...
Either: a) delete the Linux partition which will merge all unallocated space into one block or b) grow the Linux partition into both unallocated blocks.


I ahve been reading about how I can access my windows drive from within linux but it all sounds a bit complicated. Why is it sooo complicated to do this? and what is the easiest and best way of doing it?
Click to expand...

It's not complicated. There's a good chance Ubuntu will do this for you automagically, leaving you with an icon for your windows disk on your desktop or in your file manager.

if not, it's as simples as :

sudo mount -t ntfs -o ro /dev/sda1 /media/windowsdsk

if you want read/write access:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g -o rw /dev/sda1 /media/windowsdsk

if you want this done automatically every time you start Linux, put a corresponding entry in /etc/fstab
 
Right, I deleted the Linux partition and made an extended partition fill the space whcih I then spilt into 2 areas: 1 for linux and rest for data.

I am currently just backing up stuff from my windows drive just in case.

I installed the NTFS Configuration Tool whcih now allows me to access the Windows drives.

That's Excellent. I havn't used Linux much in the past so just want to get it working and have all my data on 1 partition that I can access via Windows or in Linux.

That's the idea anyway!
 
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