Dual boot Windows 7 with existing PClinuxOS installation

[rekabe]

I currently have a fully updated install of PClinuxOS KDE on a Eee Pc netbook with a 250GB hard drive working great.
It originally came with Windows XP which I removed at the time. However because of a Wimax modem incompatibility issues I need to dual boot with Windows 7.
How do I create a 30GB partition for Windows 7 without affecting my perfect PClinuxOS installation. I tried VirtualBox but it did not work with the modem.

[rubentje1991]

How did you divide your 250GB hard drive (what partitions)?

As root, run following command, and post the output:

Code:

fdisk -l

(the option of the command is a small letter L)

[rekabe]

Thanks but  I don't have my netbook with me now, but the drive is divided this way - 35GB for root, 4GB for swap and about 220GB for home.

[rubentje1991]

How full is that 220GB?
=> probably that partition can be resized (only, you should take a back up first, because making a partition smaller is always a little dangerous - I've done it many times without any problems at all, but you never know  )

[rekabe]

The 220Gb partition is only about 18% full. I was thinking I should back up my home partition and reinstall after using Gparted to repartioning the whole 250GB drive.

[pags]

Not sure if it's still the case with Windows 7 (what I do know about Win7, is it will want ti create 2 primary partitions for itself), but previous Windows preferred to be installed first, and on the first primary partition.

Can you create a remaster of your install (do you have somewhere to put it, and something to boot from, such as DVD or USB)?  If so, you could do that, then install Windows 7 (losing the current PCLOS install), and then re-install PCLOS from your re-master, which would give you your exact environment back.

Be sure to test the re-master as a Live(CD/DVD/USB/whatever), to ensure it is a good one...

You may get other, better, less destructive suggestions, as well...

[rubentje1991]

No, not needed (anymore?) pags....
Some weeks ago, I deleted a partition at the end of my filesystem, and let windows install itself there (however, most other partitions were "extended")

My fdisk -l:

/dev/sda1              63    31423139    15711538+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2        31423140   876008384   422292622+   5  uitgebreid
/dev/sda3   *   876009472   876214271      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4       876214272   976771071    50278400    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5        31423203    49174964     8875881   82  Linux wisselgeheugen
/dev/sda6        49175028   148649444    49737208+  83  Linux
/dev/sda7       792486513   876008384    41760936   83  Linux
/dev/sda8       148649508   702715229   277032861   83  Linux
/dev/sda9       702715293   792486449    44885578+  83  Linux

And this is the sequence of my partitions according to PCC:
Root - Swap - Home - Document - Other (ext3) - Repo (ext4) - Windows Boot (100MB) - Windows C (47 GB)
=> Windows has automatically created last two partitions, and of course, it didn't noticed all other partitions (perhaps, it thought my drive had 47GB as size    )
However, the last two (Windows) partitions are sda3 and sda4 (most of the others have higher numbers), so they are "primary" partitions 

=> so I think that it's possible to just resize the home partition of the op, and installing windows there...
(however, never wrong to try "mylivecd" of course  )

[Just18]

I would suggest you follow both advises ........  backup your /home, and create a remaster. Test the remaster to ensure it is functioning correctly.

Then resize the home partition to gice space for Windows and try installing Windows into that space.

If it all goes belly up then you can wipe everything put Win on first and then reinstall from your remaster.

The main point really is that you need to have two available primary partitions available to install Win 7.
It puts its boot manager on a small 100MB partition, and the main OS on whatever is left.

So do please post the output of

fdisk -l

so we can be sure you can do things this way.

regards

[btrussell]

How do I create a 30GB partition for Windows 7 without affecting my perfect PClinuxOS installation.

IMHO, 30 GB is not nearly big enough.

I have win 7 home basic(64bit), updated.

I have installed:
Firefox
Auslogics disk defrag
MS Office Pro '03
HP Printer
Canon camera software
2 racing games
Anti-virus suite

I am using 61.9GB after cleaning up drive. e.g. removal of temp internet files, installation files etc...
I have used this installation for a few scans, which are still on drive, but otherwise it is and has been dormant. Other than testing to see if they worked, I have not been playing games either.

System requirements call for 16 and 20GB (32bit/64bit) for installation. By the time you update, add anti-s, you will not be able to defrag or do much of anything else. Defraggers seem to want 15-25% free space to work properly.

[rekabe]

Here is output of fdisk -l

My hard drive is 160GB instead of 250GB maybe I was thinking about another computer anyway here is fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x92e4538c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *          63    43584344    21792141   83  Linux
/dev/sda2        43584345   312576704   134496180    5  Extended
/dev/sda5        43584408    52243379     4329486   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6        52243443   312576704   130166631   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 3999 MB, 3999268864 bytes
128 heads, 63 sectors/track, 968 cylinders, total 7811072 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00039afd

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *          63     7805951     3902944+   4  FAT16 <32M
[root@localh

[rekabe]

To be honest guys all this windows dual booting is a desperate to attempt to get use a
Greenpacket uh235 wimax usb modem I won. I will be trying to run one of the *butus in virtualbox and try to share the connection with pclinuxos if this does not work then I will have to dual boot. The only available linux driver is for kernel 2.6.28 and is in binary format for rpm and deb
I guess this post belongs in Hardware or Networking.

[Just18]

To be honest guys all this windows dual booting is a desperate to attempt to get use a
Greenpacket uh235 wimax usb modem I won. I will be trying to run one of the *butus in virtualbox and try to share the connection with pclinuxos if this does not work then I will have to dual boot. The only available linux driver is for kernel 2.6.28 and is in binary format for rpm and deb
I guess this post belongs in Hardware or Networking.

Have you tried to get an updated driver from whoever supplied the older one?

[rekabe]

I have scoured the internet and *buntus forums Just18 but it seems there is no other linux driver available. I not used to this deb format but others have got it to work.