(Solved) Dualbooting/partitioning with Windows 7

[The_Dadu]

I was just given a new Windows 7 laptop for my birthday (61 later this month).  While I will continue to run PCLOS as my main OS on this machine, I am reluctant to scrap the Windows 7 entirely; my employer has a number of applications I must access from home that require Windows. Leaving it on the disk is preferable to using an XP VM (what I'm doing on my old box).
What makes this a little more complicated, this machine has two Windows partitions, one comprising most of the disk (about 725gb) and a 15 gb 'Recovery' partition at the high end.  These are also reported as NTFS-3G.  In a similar situation with XP and regular NTFS, I would simply resize the main partition.  But, this is my first exposure to Win7 and I don't know its peculiarities.  In addition, I don't know if the guidance on the partitioning for PCLOS has changed.  
So, I'm asking for help.  This machine currently has 6gb of memory; I don't think a swap partition more than 6gb is needed, if at all.What about this for a partition scheme?
| 100gb NTFS-3g C:\ | 40gb ext4 / | {the bulk} ext4 /home   | 6gb swap | 15gb NTFS-3g D:\ 'Recovery' |
Are the sizes sufficient?  With all my current data on my current system, I have about a 30gb used of a 106gb /home partition; I'm not concerned about running out of data space..

[melodie]

Hi,

The very first thing I did when a machine running 7 came at home a pair of years ago, was to run Clonezilla from a Live USB (the machine is a netbook) and cloned the whole disk through ssh towards another machine to save it as "disk image" (it looks more like directories and files, but it is compressed). Later, I had once to restore the bootloader : I chose the option to restore it all, and that went fine too. (The Clonezilla program is in text mode, and all is written very clearly at each step: it was the first time I was using it, and also reading in English requires a special effort from me because it is technical, and because my native language is not English, however I didn't find it too difficult to use, I just had to take the time to read carefully).

The problem can arize from the bootloader, or may not arize. It may not depend entirely of Win7, but depend of how the constructor has arranged the install (the little netbook has I don't know how many partitions, but more than 2, I can say... ).

So once you have a safe copy of the hard drive with all the partitions in it, you can try to shrink the Win partition where there is space, and install PCLinuxOS with Grub in the MBR to manage both. Or you could use a non free, but free to use well known multiloader for Windows... the name is EasyBCD. I think the boot is particularly hideous with it, this is why I had to use the safe copy... I decided after test that it was too ugly and removed it. /o\

Are the sizes sufficient?

My / is installed in spaces varying from 5 to 12 GB. Then it depends how you manage your programs, do the cleaning... 5 is a bit tight sometimes, 40GB for a / partition seems gigantic to me. But that's me.

[The_Dadu]

Thank you, Melodie.
Hopefully, I'll post the results in week or so.I picked up DVD-R disks to make the 'Recovery' Backup provided by the manufacturer and do the clonevilla backup later this week.  Like always, work gets in the way of 'really important things'.
Alan

[djohnston]

What makes this a little more complicated, this machine has two Windows partitions, one comprising most of the disk (about 725gb) and a 15 gb 'Recovery' partition at the high end.  These are also reported as NTFS-3G.

The recovery partition is the manufacturer's way of saving a few bucks. You are expected to "reinstall" from that partition rather than a full Windows7 installation CD. Pretty cheesy, if you ask me. Personally, I would contact the retailer and/or manufacturer and demand a full Windows7 installation CD. Why? What if your hard drive stops working? How will you reinstall to a new hard drive? Especially if it is no longer covered under warranty.

Just my two cents.

[The_Dadu]

djohnston,
I'm making my own backups since I don't want to rely on the vendor.  BTW, when I went 100% PCLOS in 2007, it was because the WinXP partition died and the backup didn't work to restore.  So, I went 100% PCLOS for the last 5 years.  If it happens again, I have the same fallback plan.

[djohnston]

That sounds like a good plan. Better safe than sorry.

[Just18]

If that machine has Win 7, then it most likely has a small partition at the front of the disk, which holds the Win bootloader. Following that is the main Win install partition, and then the recovery partition, which is hidden usually.

The main Win partition can be reduced .....  but should, at least initially, be done from within Windows.
Get it down as far as is possible, and reboot to allow Win correct itself for the new filesystem size.

In the free space you then create an Extended partition, and in that extended partition create Logical Partitions for your PCLOS install.

The Extended partition is required as there is only one primary partition left of the four available .....  the three Win partitions are already in use ....

regards.

[The_Dadu]

Just18,
Thanks for the info... I just don't remember any version of Windows being able to resize it's partition.  Do you remember where to find that function in Win7?
Alan

[Just18]

Just18,
Thanks for the info... I just don't remember any version of Windows being able to resize it's partition.  Do you remember where to find that function in Win7?
Alan

Through the Control Panel and Disk Management I think .......  it is a couple of months since I did it, and it was my first experience with Win 7, so have no real familiarity with Win .......  gave up Win about 6 years ago

If you cannot find it, let me know  

EDIT:

This is what you need I think .......

Control Panel - Admininstration Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management (under Storage in left panel)

Then right click on the partition you want to change and select "Shrink Volume" from the options.

regards

[djohnston]

I believe it's Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management. That's where you'd find it on XP.

[btrussell]

You guys forget how to use the internet? 

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/resize-a-partition-for-free-in-windows-vista/

[djohnston]

You guys forget how to use the internet? 

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/resize-a-partition-for-free-in-windows-vista/

Yep. We needed you to show the depth of our forgetfulness. 

[melodie]

Just18,
Thanks for the info... I just don't remember any version of Windows being able to resize it's partition.  Do you remember where to find that function in Win7?
Alan

It must be somewhere in the section of the main menus called "Computer". If the naming has changed as it has in French, it used to be "Work Station" in XP. I found a nice howto here, in English, with screenshots for shrinking with the tools provided with Seven.

[btrussell]

You guys forget how to use the internet? 

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/resize-a-partition-for-free-in-windows-vista/

Yep. We needed you to show the depth of our forgetfulness. 

I've forgotten so many things, I am an expert at it! 

[The_Dadu]

Thanks to all of you who replied.  I've been able to make my Win backups, resize the Win7 partitions (4 of them), get rid of the fourth (and unneeded) partition to free up an entry in the partition table, install PCLOS, enable wifi and update from synaptic.
Now the fun starts - my personal software and data from the old machine.

I appreciate all the help.
Alan