partitioning unpartitioned NTFS drive without data loss?t

[admaw11]

I've got my Ubuntu Live CD, it boots up fine, trying to use Gparted to partition the drive, but it doesn't seem to want to resize the partition.

Starting to wonder if what I'm trying to acheive is actually meant to be possible. If a drive is unpartitioned, does it mean you MUST create a new partition table - meaning loose existing OS - in order to create partitions?

Completely unpartitioned drive running XP, I want to create a new partition, so I can have a dual boot with Ubuntu / XP, without loosing the existing XP installation and data on it.
Its a 20GB drive on a laptop - boots fine from CD, too old to support boot from USB.

I don't mind trying other partition software, but I'm wondering when they claim to be able to resize partitions, it might only be for partitions that have already been created - not for resizing drives with just the one unpartitioned 'partition' (meaning no partition table??).

cheers,

Adam.

[presence1960]

You can not have an OS on an unpartitioned disk. Your disk may be one big partition, but it has to be partitioned.

Let's get a better look at your setup & boot process. Boot the Ubuntu Live CD/USB. Choose "try ubuntu without any changes", when the desktop loads come back here and do the following:

1. Download the boot info script. There is a link in my signature.
2. Once downloaded move the boot info script to the desktop.
3. Open a terminal and run the command
sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh

This will create a RESULTS.txt file on the desktop. Paste the entire contents of that file back here. Once pasted highlight all text and click the # sign on the toolbar to place code tags around the text.

See here (http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/) for more info on the boot info script.

[Quackers]

Welcome to UF :-)
If you already have XP installed then the disc is partitioned already. There may be only one partition that occupies all of the disc. To install another operating system you would need to reduce the size of the current XP partition to make space for the new operating system to occupy.
However with a disc of only 20GB Windows XP may not allow you to reduce the size of the XP partition as it may think it needs it all to run properly. Even if you could reduce the size of the partition data could still be lost.
I would suggest that the drive is not really big enough for a second operating system.

[admaw11]

Here is the results txt file below


Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda
=> No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files/dirs: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Windows XP: Fat32
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 20.0 GB, 20003880960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2432 cylinders, total 39070080 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4aa94aa8

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 39,070,079 39,070,017 7 HPFS/NTFS


Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdb: 4039 MB, 4039114752 bytes
37 heads, 36 sectors/track, 5922 cylinders, total 7888896 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x04030201

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdb1 8 7,888,895 7,888,888 b W95 FAT32


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/ramzswap0 swap
/dev/sda1 84E80F70E80F5FB2 ntfs
/dev/sdb1 081C-08A6 vfat ESTEBAN

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

rootfs / rootfs (rw)
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (ro,noatime)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
/dev/sdb1 /media/ESTEBAN vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,shortname=mixed,uid=9 99,utf8,umask=077,flush)


================================ sda1/boot.ini: ================================

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn


There is actually about 14GB free on the drive, I don't intend to really add any more to the XP installation there, this is mainly for testing the setup of a dual boot ubuntu/xp, plus it could also make the laptop usable again if ubuntu runs much faster than XP, but I don't want to loose the data that is there in the XP installation.
If successful, I'll proceed to make my netbook, and desktop multiboot with ubuntu.

[presence1960]

With a 20 GB disk it is going to be tight. You can get away with about 8 or 9 GB for Ubuntu, But between the 2 OSs you won't have much room for storage space.

If you want to give it a whirl first back up all files you don't want to lose. Usually nothing bad will happen but you can't take the chance when performing partitioning and/or OS installations!

Then defrag windows at least once, twice is better.

Then boot from the ubuntu CD and choose install Ubuntu. At the partitioning screen choose Install side by side )or alongside) Grab the corner of the windows partition with the mouse and slide it to the left until you have the desired space you want to allocate to ubuntu. Proceed with the install.

[admaw11]

I've checked, and I can mount to the drive, and browse it, then unmount from it - definately not mounted then, I try resizing it in GParted, however it says Minimum Size: 19077MiB and Maximum Size 19077Mib, and any number I add in the boxes immediately goes to zero, and the bar won't let me drag to shrink either.
The drive is defragmented.

[presence1960]

I've checked, and I can mount to the drive, and browse it, then unmount from it - definately not mounted then, I try resizing it in GParted, however it says Minimum Size: 19077MiB and Maximum Size 19077Mib, and any number I add in the boxes immediately goes to zero, and the bar won't let me drag to shrink either.
The drive is defragmented.

From gparted right click the NTFS partition and select Resize/Move. See fiest screenshot attached.

Then on the window that appears either change the numeric values or grab the right corner of the NTFS partition and resize by sliding to left. Note the double arrow cursor which is my mouse.

P.S. my double arrow cursor went away when I took the screenshot and is replaced by the traditional mouse pointer.

[admaw11]

I've found some indication why it won't let me resize, it says there are at least 3 bad sectors on the disk and some operations may be restricted.

[admaw11]

SOLVED by using other software to resize the NTFS partition

Then once there is unallocated space, the partitions are easily setup DURING the install process.