No Install Dual Boot Partions Reset Anyway.

[wbee]

Hello,

Having played around with Ubuntu 8.10 for about a month,learning how to do what I want it to do,I decided to re install a Windows XP and Ubuntu 8.10 dual boot.

First,I re installed the XP,taking the hours necessary to download all the updates. The C drive and the D drive took up about 12g,once I got everything loaded,from a 150 g hard drive.

((Before you say it,a dual boot was necessary to keep peace in the family.))

I used a registry cleaner to clean it up and defragged both the C and D drives.

Then,I inserted the OS disk,set it to boot from the optical drive,and did.

I went through language,time zone,and typewriter,finally coming to the partition page. The guided-re size partitions dot was filled in as the default.

The top horizontal tube graph showed from left to right,a 2 g spacer,my 12 g of XP,and the representation of roughly 135g of free space.

The next horizontal tube graph showed 13.5 percent for XP and the rest allotted to Ubuntu. **There was no slider,as there was the first time I installed.

I checked,there was no slider for "contiguous" either. The only option using "contiguous" was a one hundred percent Ubuntu install.

I went forward out of the box,thinking that might get me to the slider window,with the button still on guided re size.

Instead,if brought up a screen asking me to wait while it moved the partitions,telling me that I could change them. It never got above the "0%" setting and the stopped,saying there was a reading error. I was given no opportunity to change anything.

So,I "quit" the install and shut down,(remove cd,enter,shut down).

I rebooted the computer and it checked my XP files for corruption and finally opened the XP program.

There was an icon on the system tray,telling me my hard drive was almost used up.

Without installing the OS or changing the grub,it had allocated the space and I do NOT have the OS installed but I only have a gig and a half left on my hard drive,because Ubuntu allocated it.

Yes,it was the same disk that passed a hash check and correctly installed it before,on the same computer.

--How do I get the hard drive space back into my XP system?

--How do I install so I get the slider, to allocate my hard disk roughly fifty/fifty to each operating system?

Just when I think I have a handle on ubuntu,something like this happens.

-----------

Thank you.

[meierfra.]

Boot from the LiveCD, open a terminal and post the output of


sudo fdisk -lu

Also download the testdisk-6.10.linux26.tar.bz2 package (http://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk-6.10.linux26.tar.bz2) to your desktop, and then do:




cd ~/Desktop
tar xvf testdisk-6.10.linux26.tar.bz2
sudo testdisk-6.10/linux/testdisk_static /dev/sda


After starting testdisk with the above command, choose
"Proceed",
"Intel",
"Analyze",
"Quick search",
Press "Y" (to search for Vista partitions)
Press "Enter" to continue,
select "Deeper Search" (so it does a deeper search, which could take a while)

Please post the output of the screen that has the deep search results. Also, use your up/down arrow keys to select each partition listed in the deep search results, and press "p" to get a directory listing; please let me know exactly which partitions give you a directory listing.

[wbee]

meierfra,

I have XP,not Vista,does the "y" instruction still apply?

[meierfra.]

Sorry, press "N" .

[wbee]

meierfra,

Thank you for the help.

Here is the first output result that you requested:



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
Disk identifier: 0x14cb14cb

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 9157050 27053459 8948205 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 63 9157049 4578493+ b W95 FAT32

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Here is the output from the "deep search" page:


Disk /dev/sda - 160 GB / 149 GiB - CHS 19457 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
* FAT32 0 1 1 569 254 63 9156987 [RECOVERY]
D HPFS - NTFS 570 0 1 1683 254 63 17896410
D HPFS - NTFS 570 0 1 10116 254 63 153372555
D HPFS - NTFS 570 0 1 19455 254 63 303403590
D HPFS - NTFS 570 0 10 1683 254 63 17896401
D HPFS - NTFS 622 0 1 10299 254 63 155477070
D HPFS - NTFS 622 0 11 16072 254 63 248220305
D Linux 16073 1 1 19310 254 63 52018407
D Linux Swap 19311 1 1 19456 254 63 2345427


And finally,from the immediate previous group,the lines that returned directories:


* FAT32 0 1 1 569 254 63 9156987 [RECOVERY]
D HPFS - NTFS 570 0 1 1683 254 63 17896410
D HPFS - NTFS 570 0 1 19455 254 63 303403590
D Linux 16073 1 1 19310 254 63 52018407



---------------

W

[meierfra.]

The C drive and the D drive took up about 12g,
I assume the C drive was your main XP partition.
What was the D drive? The recovery partition?
Were the C and D drive each 12g? Or together?
Did you lose any Data?

The only partitions you currently have is a 4g recovery partition and 8g Windows partition. It seems that testdisk did not find any extra partitions which are worth recovering.

I suggest to use gparted (the partitioning editor) from the Live CD to partition your hard drive before you install Ubuntu:

1. Increase the size of the Windows partition to your liking.

2. Use the remaining unallocated space to create an extended partition.

3. Create a logical ext3 partition partition leaving enough space for a swap partition.

4. Create a swap partition. Size : about 1.5 times your ram. But, if you don't use hibernation, not more than 2g.

You might also create an extra logical ntfs partition for sharing data between XP and Ubuntu.


After you partitioned the hard drive, make sure that you can boot into Windows. Windows should run an automatic file system check.
Then install Ubuntu. But choose manual partitioning instead of one of the guided options.

Let me know if you need more detailed instruction.

[wbee]

meierfra,

If I don't reply for a day or two,it will be because of my schedule.

Since I have never used gparted before,I'm going to at least read the manual first so I'm not completely lost.:-)

I can use all the detailed instruction I can get.

The C drive is the main XP partition,about eight g. The D drive is the recovery and boot partition for XP,about four g. Both together are about 12 g.

I'd like to split the drive about fifty/fifty for XP and either Ubuntu or Linux Mint(again,a family thing.)

The computer has 1024 RAM and I don't hibernate. I can keep the systems separate.

-----------

Thanks,

W

[meierfra.]

I can use all the detailed instruction I can get.

Here are a few tutorials to look at:

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/partitioning

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/index.php?act=print&tut=152&client=printer

http://mywebsite.bigpond.net.au/dfelderh/p23.html



The computer has 1024 RAM and I don't hibernate.

So I recommend a 1.5GB swap partition.

[wbee]

meierfra and all,

Before I actually do anything,let me run this by you:

--Do I read "psycho's" essay correctly that if I set up an ntfs partition,an ext3 partition,an ext3/home partition,and a swap partition,that I can keep my records in the ext3/home partition and access them with XP(should the need ever arise) with the freeware he links AND be able to do a clean install of 11.x when the time comes without losing any records?

--Should I worry (or even care) about flags or will the grub give me the option of which system to enter based upon defaults that Ubuntu or Linux Mint will select at the install?

--I'm not going to do it right now,because I'm tired. But does this sound about right,before I proceed?:


150g hard drive,1028 memory:

5g ntfs recovery
20g ntfs
100g ext3/home
20g ext3
3g swap

Should I reboot after each partition setting?

--------

Thanks
W

**edit** About five minutes ago,I went into the partition software and changed the 12g file to 20g. When I tried to change the 4g file,it would not let me,and it was fat instead of ntrs.

But it booted into windows correctly and the petition I worked on was recognized and all is well,so should I leave well enough alone.?

[meierfra.]

if I set up an ntfs partition,an ext3 partition,an ext3/home partition,and a swap partition,that I can keep my records in the ext3/home partition and access them with XP(should the need ever arise) with the freeware he links
Accessing an ext3 partition from XP is a little bit problematic. There is a very stable driver (Ext2IFS) (http://www.fs-driver.org/), but it does not work with the new version of ext3 used by Ubuntu. There is a driver (ext2fs (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd)) which works with the new ext3, but is not quite as stable as ext3ifs.

So for sharing files with XP I recommend to use a Data partition formated as ntfs.


AND be able to do a clean install of 11.x when the time comes without losing any records?
True.

150g hard drive,1028 memory:

5g ntfs recovery
20g ntfs
100g ext3/home
20g ext3
3g swap

....

When I tried to change the 4g file,it would not let me,and it was fat instead of ntrs.

There is no reason to increase the size of the recovery partition. So just leave it as it is.

Unless you plan on upgrading your memory, 3GB is too much for the swap partition. I bet you will never use more than 1GB of swap. So 1.5-2 GB should be plenty for swap.

Depending on how much sharing you plan to do between XP and Ubuntu, you might want to replace your home partition by an ntfs Data partition. Or you use both (home and Data)



Should I reboot after each partition setting?

No. Resizing the XP partition was the only delicate step. All the remaining partitioning will be quick and harmless. No rebooting required.

[wbee]

meierfra,

Since I have never done this before,since backing up stuff to put in 11.xx when it shows is not that big a deal,here is what I did:

I left the fat32 partition exactly as it was.

I increased the ntfs partition to about 60g.
I created an ext3 partition of about 60g.

I created a linux swap partition of just over 2g

((I decided against putting in an additional fat32 to share data.))

All is well,I got back into XP with no problem at all after it did a disk check.

Now,I went to the install,went to manual,and made sure that everything conformed to the fat,ntfs,ext3,and linuxswap labels,and entered next.

A screen came up that said:

"Root file system is not defined. Please correct from the partition menu."

Having no idea what to do at that point,I backed out of the install,and came here.

So,how and where do I define the root file?

-------

Thanks.

[wbee]

Re: No Install Dual Boot Partions Reset Anyway.
meierfra,

Since I have never done this before,since backing up stuff to put in 11.xx when it shows is not that big a deal,here is what I did:

I left the fat32 partition exactly as it was.

I increased the ntfs partition to about 60g.
I created an ext3 partition of about 60g.

I created a linux swap partition of just over 2g

((I decided against putting in an additional fat32 to share data.))

All is well,I got back into XP with no problem at all after it did a disk check.

Now,I went to the install,went to manual,and made sure that everything conformed to the fat,ntfs,ext3,and linuxswap labels,and entered next.

A screen came up that said:

"Root file system is not defined. Please correct from the partition menu."

Having no idea what to do at that point,I backed out of the install,and came here.

So,how and where do I define the root file?

-------

Thanks.

[meierfra.]

(I decided against putting in an additional fat32 to share data.))
Good. If you want a partition for sharing, use NTFS not Fat.



left the fat32 partition exactly as it was.

I increased the ntfs partition to about 60g.
I created an ext3 partition of about 60g.

I created a linux swap partition of just over 2g
So you decide against a Data and against a Home partition?
That's fine. Having less partitions means that you are less likely to run out have space.



"Root file system is not defined. Please correct from the partition menu."

At the "preparing partition" screen:
select the ext3 partition.
Click on "edit partition".
Set "Use as" to "ext3 journaling file system"
Set the Mount Point to "/"
(Setting the MountPoint to "/" defines the ext3 partition to be the Root file system)

If you want to be able to access your Window partition from Ubuntu, you should also choose a mount point for your Windows partition. For example "/media/XP".

[wbee]

meierfra,


Thank you so much. Everything is working perfectly.

Your help was professional and correct.

-------------
W

[meierfra.]

Everything is working perfectly.
Great. Have fun with XP and Ubuntu.