Slackware :: Repartition Without Losing Windows Recovery Partition?
Mar 5, 2010
I got a new laptop today (yay) with windows 7 on it. I want to keep a small windows partition, just in case I need it for something. Anyway, I know how to use fdisk, and am comfortable installing on a disk without data I need to maintain.. but this new computer came with 5 (!) windows partitions. I don't know where to start.
I don't mind reinstalling windows after partitioning if I have to, but I really don't want to screw up the recovery partition. Any clues on where to start or what to look for? Or what NOT to do?
It looks like "my computer" has two partitions listed (c: and d: ). I guess I could just take note of the size of these two partitions, free up the partitions that match in fdisk, then repartition that space and install everything.
I need to reboot to do that, so I'll edit with the information when I have it.
fdisk output:
Code:
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8e0eee9e
This is my first post on Ubuntu, ive been testing/and dual booted then reverted back to windows this past year, and now have gone back to school for computer networking...so im SUPER interested,So - i want to install Ubuntu on my little Toshiba netbook that i drag everywhere with me, but im afraid to screw with it's partitions. I dont want to spend $$$ to get a larger than 8GB flash drive to create a recovery from the HDD partition that is installed on their, and they dont come with the backup/recovery disks, so i want to either leave that partition alone (in case i need to switch it back to windows down the road to sell it), or whatever.
I know i could just download windows to my PC, transfer the files to a flash drive, and put it on that way, but the recovery comes complete with drivers, etc which makes it a smoother and faster process. Oh, i cant make the recovery of windows b/c i need 7.xx GB of space, and my biggest flash drive is an 8GB which doesnt quite make it.SOOOOO - IF i install Ubuntu, will that recovery partition DEFINITELY be left alone? Or is there an easy way someone could suggest copying that partition without a 16GB drive? OR is there any way to use an external hard drive to copy that recovery partition on to?
I have only installed ubuntu once, maybe twice, but didnt care about partitions and wiped everything as requested by the install. (i reverted back because i couldnt navigate quickly installing and updating programs, but now have a windows laptop and want to be forced to learn linux on my netbook).any help is MUCH appreciated! I have an Ubuntu scratch that im dying to itch, but dont want to lose my windows recovery
Two days ago I repartitioned my laptop HD and added the latest Ubuntu (2.6.35-25-generic) to the existing Vista and existing Ubuntu (2.6.32-28-generic via upgrades from 9.14(?)). Prior to this install it was using Grub with menu.lst from the old/upgrade Ubuntu. After the install the boot menu labels the partition with Vista as the Windows Recovery partition and the recovery partition item is no longer present.
At first I wondered how I could get Vista to boot. I found that SuperGrub cd would boot it OK. Then, it dawned on me that the boot menu item was not the recovery partition, but instead the Vista OS partition mislabelled . Vista loads just fine from it. The recovery partition is no longer listed as it was with Grub/menu.lst. SuperGrub will not boot the recovery partition, showing an error "missing BOOTMGR".
I tried installing Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on my girlfriend's lenovo using a live disc. First we tried it out to show her the wireless would work fine (her previous lenovo was not ubuntu friendly at all). She's interested in keeping her windows 7 partition along with the lenovo recovery partition, so I tried doing a dual boot install. I manually moved the cursors setting the disk space on each partition, and we allowed Ubuntu to do the rest. Much to my dismay, the installation failed.
I've done some reading over the internet, and I think in our case it would be best to use a Wubi installation. We're interested in using 10.04, so where can we find a wubi installer of Ubuntu 10.04?
Also, any ideas why the installation might have failed? The iso was downloaded off the ubuntu main site, and we burned it using infrarecorder.
is it possible to use a Windows-based recovery partition on a dual-boot computer to overwrite the Ubuntu partition and remove the GRUB loader? For instance, if you booted up your computer, accessed the hidden recovery partition and used it to reset the computer to it's factory default settings, would that effectively remove the Ubuntu partition and the GRUB loader? Would a completely new installation of Windows overwrite/uninstall Ubuntu and GRUB automatically?
My set up is a dual boot between windows 7 and ubuntu 10.04. This laptop used to have vista on it. See image below for my partition set up. pretty obvious where ubuntu should be.I accidentally selected the wrong entry in grub and booted into an acer windows recovery partition. despite exiting as soon as it loaded, the long story short is that it has goodbyed linux.On booting i now just get a grub rescue prompt.I have eventually managed to boot into a liveUSB (cd drive is botched too )As you can see from the screenpic, testdisk shows linux is still there but there are quite a few entries from the upgrades.So, if i can restore the partition around this linux partition will grub come back with it and will all be merry?
I havent mounted any volumes on the drive yet, but i think i need to back up my data before messing with the partition table. is it cool to mount them to pull some data off?general advice for how to proceed would be great.Im not too hung up on keeping the linux install itself. whats gunna be easier? install into that 16gb space and then re add windows to grub, or try and recover this partition?
Is it possible to load a USB stick so it works as a Slackware bootstick, a dual boot system and Slackware 13.1 installation medium?I'm planning to install 13.1 on a netbook (Samsung NP-N150-KA01IN) which comes with Windows 7 installed and probably an OEM recovery partition (I don't have the netbook yet). In this LQ threaddimm0k asked about keeping the OEM boot system including OEM recovery while being able to dual boot Slackware.samac suggested using a USB stick to control the boot.During Slackware installation there is a step to create a USB bootstick.The netbook does not have a CD/DVD drive so I plan to use Eric Hameleers'usbimg2disk.sh (now part of the Slackware 13.1 distribution).It would be great if all three functions could be combined on single USB stick and it could also carry data files. I would be able to carry a complete "disaster recovery" solution while travelling light.Only downside to this plan is that losing the USB stick would mean only being able to boot Windows 7 I'm happy to put some work into this but don't know where to look for the architecture of the bootstick and can't reverse engineer it not having created one during installation.
I have a dual boot setup with Windows 7 and Ubuntu. Lately Windows 7 has been causing me all kinds of grief and I decided that it would be better to just restore it back to factory settings. I have a Windows 7 recovery partition (hidden) that I can see from Ubuntu, however Grub2 does not detect it. It only has two identical Windows entries that take me into Windows (though in /boot/grub/grub.cfg they point to hd0,msdos1 and hd0,msdos2 respectively).
I have searched far and wide on the Internet on how to gain access to this recovery partition to no avail. I even found a link from Lenovo's website that details how to do this in the old version of Grub, though it doesn't work in Grub2.
Here are the most useful links that I have found thus far, both fall short unfortunately. [URL]
I have already backed up all my data, so I can nuke the whole disk if that's what it takes, but I don't actually have a Windows Recovery CD, only the hidden partition which I can't seem to boot into.
I also saw some posts where people were having trouble disabling the recovery partitions from appearing in the Grub menu, their answers often consisted of people telling them that it's not possible to disable the recovery partition from appearing without hiding the main Windows Install, oh the irony!
I deleted some folders, and I really need them back.these folders were stored in the same drive where my Ubuntu is installed. Is is possible to use any kind of recovery software, on the filesystem without losing it?
On my Samsung netbook, I have successfully got a pretty speedy dual-boot of Windows 7 Starter and Ubuntu 10.10
I set up Burg, to well, replace Grub2 in favour of a more attractive interface and so far so good. I know that I can hide the older Ubuntu kernels/recovery slots by pressing the 'F'key. However, the Windows recovery partition still shows up. So it looks like this:
Ubuntu - Windows 7 - Windows Recovery (vista)
Basically, how can I hide the Windows Recovery partition? If I ever do need to use it, I can access it alternatively by pressing F4 at boot.
I want to make it now because it is still under the size of a dvd 3.7GB and i want to put it safe on a dvd to restore fast and not have to customize anything in case of a disaster , like me running dd again )
I want to install Ubuntu in a dual boot with the Windows XP that came preinstalled on my netbook. I do have an external CD/DVD drive, and my hard drive is 140 GB with 35.7 GB used by XP.
Before we begin just some general information, I'm running on a 64-bit HP Pavilion dv6; This laptop is something you would buy off of best buy's show floor. I installed Ubuntu through wubi in windows 7. I have a 500 GB Hard Drive. As of right now I can explore the windows 7 part of the hard drive.Now the problem began on Friday January 21st after I shrunk my Windows parition by 100GBS leaving around 370 GBS left in windows. Then I went into Ubuntu to try and format the 100GBS to create a space so I can share media in between windows and Ubuntu. ( At the time I didn't realise I could already go into the Windows Partition).
I already had Windows 7 installed and decided to try out Ubuntu--just to, you know, mess around with stuff. During the partitioning part of the installation, I didn't pay attention as to how much space/volume I would shrink Windows down to, so I just went ahead and pressed forward with the default amount already on there (all of of the space went to Ubuntu, I'm thinking).
Now whenever I turn on my computer, I get a grub menu. On the list is Linux xxxx, Linux etc (blah blah blah), and then Windows 7 loader. It doesn't work, and suggests that I put in the Windows installation disc.
This is what my partitions look like on Gparted:
I have the installation disc. Somewhere.
I'd like to keep the dual boot on Ubuntu and Windows 7 if that's possible.But since Ubuntu is already working, if it's easier to just delete Windows 7, I'd like to know how to do that, too.
I recently purchased a dell inspiron N4010 with windows 7 preloaded...i want to install fedora into it and i want keep it as my primary operasting system.... but what worries me is that the windows setup files is stored in a hidden recovery partion.... So if i install fedora will i lose this ??? if no will i will be able to install windows from that partion?
I would like to combine my Linux partition (/sda3) and /sad1 to give me more disc space. I would also like to combine the two unallocated partitions to install a Windows 7 dual-boot with Ubuntu. How would I do that without totally raping my current Ubuntu install?
I am completely ubuntu right now, and I need to create a partition for XP without losing all the work I have on ubuntu. How can I shrink ubuntu's partition to make a 15 gb partition for XP without losing data?According to Gparted:
I tried to install rawhide by enabling the rawhide repo and doing a yum update. Lets just say it didn't go so well. My system wont start the GUI when I start the computer. It just shows the Fedora boot animation and stays there. So anyway I need to reinstall Fedora 14. I wanted to reinstall Fedora without having to backup and restore all my data (my home directory). So I did some Googleing and found that if I had my home directory on a separate partition that I was set to go. All I had to do was format "/" and just tell it to use the "/home" partition I already had and not to format it and I that was it. So I went to try it myself and found that it was not as straight forward as it seemed. Well at least for me.
I clicked on "lv_root" assuming that was supposed to have "/" as its mount point. I clicked the edit button. I selected "/" as its mount point and told it to format it as ext4.Then I clicked on lv_home and clicked on the edit button. I made its mount point "/home" and clicked "ok".I clicked "Next" and I get this error "Bootable partitions cannot be on a logical volume". What do I need to do to fix this? I assume this has to do with the "lv_" at the beginning of the partition names.
I have a 160gb hard drive with no partitions. Ubuntu runs on the entire disc. I want to cut off 60gb from my file system as a storage drive without losing the data that i already have on it.
I don't want to reinstall Ubuntu and cannot afford to lose all my data. Is it possible to do so, without having to reinstall the OS.
i have suse linux enterprise desktop on my laptop with these partitions :
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 2612 20980858 83 Linux /dev/sda2 2613 3592 7871848 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sda3 3593 3971 3044317+ 83 Linux /dev/sda4 3972 60801 456486972+ 83 Linux
now i want to delete all partitions except root partition (sda1) and make it's size bigger then create other partitions again.
After I write the partition table CFDISK does not exit. If I chose quit or Q I lose all my changes. I am switching back to slack and I have done this many times before and dont recall ever having this problem. How do I exit and save my changes? I read a post about yes not registering because on the screen all you see is ye, the s is cutoff and that is the same thing I have. Could that be the problem? If it is a graphics issue I would think that the whole word yes would still register even though you cannot see the s.
I tried to install rawhide by enabling the rawhide repo and doing a yum update. Lets just say it didn't go so well. My system wont start the GUI when I start the computer. It just shows the Fedora boot animation and stays there. So anyway I need to reinstall Fedora 14. I wanted to reinstall Fedora without having to backup and restore all my data (my home directory). So I did some Googleing and found that if I had my home directory on a separate partition that I was set to go. All I had to do was format "/" and just tell it to use the "/home" partition I already had and not to format it and I that was it. So I went to try it myself and found that it was not as straight forward as it seemed. Well at least for me.
I clicked on "lv_root" assuming that was supposed to have "/" as its mount point. I clicked the edit button. I selected "/" as its mount point and told it to format it as ext4. Then I clicked on lv_home and clicked on the edit button. I made its mount point "/home" and clicked "ok". I clicked "Next" and I get this error "Bootable partitions cannot be on a logical volume". What do I need to do to fix this? I assume this has to do with the "lv_" at the beginning of the partition names.
I would like to resize my /home ( /dev/sdb6 ) partition - without losing data - to make room to create a swap partition (at the moment, I don't have any swap. Is it dangerous ?) IIRC, it was possible to change partition sizes from the install disk in repair mode (?) But I cannot find that repair mode on the 11.3 install disk. Has it been removed or is it somewhere deeper in the install or update process ?
My gateway netbook was dual booted with windows 7 and ubuntu netwbook.,I was attempting free up some space on my netbook and decided that the ubuntu partition was expendable.I deleted it and sufficient to say I now can't boot boot up, I just get an error message, can't remember exactly what it is.I am getting a new computer and would kind of like to be able to recover the files on the computer.I have a USB netbook boot drive and am wondering how I would be able to install ubuntu without loosing the files.I have the usb key plugged in am now at the partition stage of the installation.
I tried to install rawhide by enabling the rawhide repo and doing a yum update. Lets just say it didn't go so well. My system wont start the GUI when I start the computer. It just shows the Fedora boot animation and stays there. So anyway I need to reinstall Fedora 14. I wanted to reinstall Fedora without having to backup and restore all my data (my home directory). So I did some Googleing and found that if I had my home directory on a separate partition that I was set to go. All I had to do was format "/" and just tell it to use the "/home" partition I already had and not to format it and I that was it. So I went to try it myself and found that it was not as straight forward as it seemed. Well at least for me.
I clicked on "lv_root" assuming that was supposed to have "/" as its mount point. I clicked the edit button. I selected "/" as its mount point and told it to format it as ext4.Then I clicked on lv_home and clicked on the edit button. I made its mount point "/home" and clicked "ok".I clicked "Next" and I get this error "Bootable partitions cannot be on a logical volume". What do I need to do to fix this? I assume this has to do with the "lv_" at the beginning of the partition names.
Now that I'm able to connect to Internet via my MC760 wireless modem on /dev/ttyUSB0, I am losing time! I have lost 5 minutes while online for 1/2 hr. Yes ntpd is running. What is strange is that right now, I'm in town at coffee shop and using wireless. I'm not losing time at all. This isn't the first time I've noticed the loss of time. It's been happening every since I was able to connect with the usb modem. I just had to come to town and use wireless to see if the problem existed while on wireless (b43). While being connected via the MC760, I've also noticed that the cpu temp rises and the fan runs quite a bit more than when not connected via the MC760. Here is the top portion of output of "top" code...
