After Fedora FAIL, success with Ubuntu - BUT...

[Leo Rivers]

Alright.

I guess I need to

#1 remove false entries (What do I need to keep ubuntu and swap and 20 Gig shared data partition?)

#2 Make a partition of free space for *******

#3 Install Windows into that space AND NOT F**K up and ruin Linux?


Some advice might be nice.

Virtualizing a Windows install like Parallels on a Mac would be GREAT, but how do I then rescue lost partition space?


Thanks for you excellent newbie assistance.

[Hakunka-Matata]

Alright.

I guess I need to

#1 remove false entries (What do I need to keep ubuntu and swap and 20 Gig shared data partition?)

#2 Make a partition of free space for *******

#3 Install Windows into that space AND NOT F**K up and ruin Linux?

Look at your disk using GParted "System > Administration > GParted", (not installed by default). You can easily use that tool to accomplish #1 & #2 above if you choose. You'd have to boot into the LiveCD to work on your hard disk, if you decide to do it that way.

[Leo Rivers]

I made that /dev/sda7 of 51 GB into a 32 Fat partition

now it is mounted at /media/129F-1FC2

so how can I trick a Windows installer to see and install into it AND LEAVE EVERYTHING ELSE ALONE!

And I guess grub will spot it, or do I need to edit that? and how?


Already all seems manageable.

Thanks again

[Hakunka-Matata]

Post a screenshot "Applications > Accessories > Take Screenshot" of a GParted gui of your disk partitioning first please. Upload it with the paperclip icon.

[Leo Rivers]

As asked. (I really appreciate the effort folks)

PS: the sda5 20 GB is my shared Data drive. It's a keeper.


Leo

[Hakunka-Matata]

OK, and you want to install windows on sda7?

[Leo Rivers]

Yes,/dev/sda7/ /media/129F-1fc2 47.45 GB

I have no idea what /dev/sda2 of 5.57 GB is

my SHARED data partition is /dev/sda5 , Open Office in both Linux and Windows can share the same files.

[Hakunka-Matata]

• sda7 is a logical partition, that will not work for windows install.
• sda5, your shared partition, it's FAT32, NTFS would be better

it can all be fixed with GParted,

You need to make a NTFS primary partition for the windows install, that's
probably the first thing to do.

Thumbnail is of a XP_UB1010 dual boot drive, simple, as example only

[srs5694]

Hakunka-Matata is correct that Windows must install to a primary partition, and that this fact makes /dev/sda7 a poor choice and /dev/sda2 a better choice. OTOH, /dev/sda7 is a bigger partition than /dev/sda2, and I'd be reluctant to recommend wiping it out if you don't know its purpose. (My suspicion is that it's a leftover partition from an earlier OEM install of Windows, and so it should be safe to remove it, but I'm not positive of that.) One possible way out of this dilemma is to use my new FixParts program, which can convert primary partitions into logical partitions and vice-versa, within certain constraints. It's apparent from your layout that you could convert /dev/sda2 into a logical partition and then convert /dev/sda6 and /dev/sda7 into primary partitions. Such a conversion would be quicker and safer than resizing and moving partitions with GParted, which is the other option if you need ~45 GiB for Windows.

One caveat with this approach is that many of your important partition identifiers will change. This could render Linux unbootable until you adjust the /etc/fstab file and/or your GRUB configuration. OTOH, in theory it could still all work, since Ubuntu normally uses UUIDs for these features rather than partition numbers. Another caveat is that FixParts is new; it's conceivable you'll run into a bug that will cause further problems.

A Windows caveat is that the Windows installer, under certain circumstances, can delete partitions it's not asked to delete or convert logical partitions into primaries in a way that's illegal. Thus, I recommend setting up your partitions before launching the Windows installer, so that you can just click the target partition and tell Windows to install there, rather than add, delete, or otherwise manipulate partitions in the installer.

I don't see any way of making that disk suitable for Windows installation that doesn't involve some type of risk. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you back up your important data before you proceed. If this is impossible or inconvenient, then you need better backup hardware. Buy it and use it.

It's also unclear to me what purpose /dev/sda6 serves. It's only 200 MiB in size, which isn't big enough for much. It's big enough for a Linux /boot partition, but according to GParted, it's mounted at a mount point in /media named after its UUID value. That suggests it's not being used as a /boot partition, but I can't be 100% certain of that. It's could be it's a leftover /boot partition from a previous installation. If so, you could safely delete it. This wouldn't significantly alter any of your options, but if you convert partition types with FixParts, deleting this partition would free up one primary partition slot, which might be useful in the future.

Windows will ultimately want an NTFS partition, but IIRC, if you feed it a disk with a FAT partition, it will enable you to install to the FAT partition; it will just convert from FAT to NTFS by itself. Thus, you should be able to leave it as FAT or convert it to NTFS using GParted, with more-or-less identical results.

One more observation: Your /dev/sda7 partition currently has an "LVM flag" set. That's GParted's way of saying that it has a partition type code of 0x8E, which identifies Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM) partitions. Having a FAT filesystem on such a partition is incorrect, and there's a good chance that the Windows installer will not detect it as-is, even if you convert it into a primary partition. You can correct the matter in several ways, such as by using fdisk to change the type code, using GParted to create a new filesystem on the partition, or using FixParts to change the type code while you juggle primary/logical partition assignments.

[Leo Rivers]

Linux operating systems can be installed into (and run from) logical partitions, whereas Windows operating systems are restricted to primary partitions.

wiki

Does the above quote from a wiki mean I have to nuke my laptop into two partitions, both NTFS, install Windows into the primary, (first) partition

THEN BOOT my ubuntu linux disk to force a take over of the second and extended partition
'
and let Grub run the show?

right? Wrong? Gory details?