Help with creating partitions.

kchi55

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I was wondering, is it possible to create partitions on a hard drive that is already in use? I want to give Vista/Ubuntu a try, and my primary OS right now is XP, I have two internal hard drives, one with XP installed and the other is just where I store all my large files (videos, music, etc). I didn't think about partitioning when I installed these two hard drives so is there anyway to partition them now without losing any data?
 
While it's highly unlikely that you will lose anything, before doing anything, backup any data you absolutly need.

I've found that using G-parted works very well for partitioning hard drives that have OS'es on them. Beauty part of it, is that it's free.
 
I use Partition Magic and find that fine to use.
yea i agree.
its always worked well for me, unless i try to do too much, like delete a partition, resize one, then make a new one, et, all at the same time, then it has a fit. apart from that making just a new partition has always been quick and easy for me.
 
best partition software used to be partition magic no though i like acronis disk creator.

unlocks drives like partition magic couldnt
 
do you really want Ubuntu on ask yourself?

I've actually just installed vista and unbuntu, here is what I did:

Bascailly I downloaded partition magic and turned my harddrive into two, one for 100gb(for vista) and one at 150gb(linux ubuntu), now , once I did this, I downloaded ubuntu from a torrent because I had problems downloading it from the website, well, wheile I finshed downloading it from the website I could'nt make it an IMG due to the download, it just would'nt let me, but skip doing this I downloaded via torrents at a high speed, when it finshed I burnt it as IMG disc and it worked, so then I formatted both harddrivers to clear everything and then I installed vista 1st, then updated it and installed drivers and what not, anyway, I then restarted my pc and input linux in, i folled the instructions and go to abit of a tricky part, where it asks you about the install click manuel, click next and then you willl see your partitions, the one you wan't to install linux on, well write click this and click edit, then choose EX3, where it says 'MOUNT' type / (slash) in and make it the whole 50g or what ever size, but leave 512mb free, once this has been done, somehow you can create another I think write click the ext3 one and make it 512mb and make it (i cant rmember the name but it beings with S, you'll see when your in their, just like you did with ex3, but its to be used as virtual memory), anyway don't type anything in mount, once their done you shoiuld have:


Harddrive 1 (vista) (size)
harddrive 2 (50g (ext3)
harddrive 3 (s*** size:512mb)


something like this, well install over the 50g and let it install, once thats done, then restart go in linux, now then i followed what this guy has said:

the flash is in the repo.Then name to search for is 'flash non free'.Now I'm not sure it will show up at first,SO do this,go to the top panel open system, administration, software sources and make sure the boxes for ubuntu software are checked all mine are the go to the next tab third party software and make sure that conical is checked also before you close uncheck the cd options at the bottom of the ubuntu software choices tab this alone will have you going nuts putting the cd in and out.Close the software sources.Next go to system again , administration, synoptic package manager.Hit reload in the upper left conner then search and put in flash.you want flash-nonfree from the search results.It seems to work pretty well on fire fox 3.5 but does crash on utube from time to time.If it crashes to muck you can down grade fire fox try to install flash from the adobe site or wait for ubuntuzilla to get updated to work with firefox3.5.Oh just to be certain make sure that no other flash package is installed like gnash.If there are they will show up in the search with green boxes they are installed right click and select completely remove,this is just for flash.also you might want to get java6.



then this means you can play videos in youtube and you have codes, welll try updating a few times intill it finds alot of drivers

anyway, linux is tough, so i had to learn these:

http://appdb.winehq.org/

what games can you play on linux you might ask?

http://appdb.winehq.org/


Also, i thought well where is my programs? i think its in your LIB folder under te c drive, hen i clicked USR, then their they where.

goodluck man thats all info i have
 
Alright, thanks for all the input guys, just one more question, um, if I want to install an OS does it have to be on the primary drive or can I boot it from the slave drive? Like how would I be able to choose which OS I want it to boot? Also, since I'm really just testing Vista/Ubuntu out, if I eventually wanted to update XP to Vista, I'd be able to do that without any hiccups right?
 
from the slave? so your saying you have another harddrive? then if its on slave then no you can't boot from the harddrive on slave.

And about the message once you have installed both when you restart it will ask you what operating system you want to use.

And yes you will run both great.

In vista you might wanna turn all the themes off, this will increase your speed by loads

Alright, thanks for all the input guys, just one more question, um, if I want to install an OS does it have to be on the primary drive or can I boot it from the slave drive? Like how would I be able to choose which OS I want it to boot? Also, since I'm really just testing Vista/Ubuntu out, if I eventually wanted to update XP to Vista, I'd be able to do that without any hiccups right?

You might want to re read what I put above your post because I had to edit it and its easy to follow now, print the page man, trust me, your gonner get stuck, I've been threw it before and you can't just think o i'll put a linux disk in and happily follow the instructions, can be abit mind using on this one if its your 1st time.
 
The slave can have an OS on it, but the Primary needs to have the MBR edited to look at the slave for an OS.
 
Ah.. so it can't read off of a secondary drive? That sucks since my main HDD has a lower capacity than my primary, well, I guess that means I'll have to do a bit of moving then, hopefully I can free up at least 120 GB on my primary, I only have about 60 free right now.
 
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