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great orme
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July 5th, 2006 20:00
Installing Linux without losing the hidden partitions
Hi all.
Just bought my first Dell, an Inspiron 1300 with 80gb hdd and 512mb. so this is my first post to this forum. I have used Mandrake in various forms for many years on a desktop with swappable hdds, never in a dual boot config.
When I looked at the Inspiron, there seemed to be three partitions, two of which are for rescue/recovery purposes. I will probably install Mandriva One or kubuntu from a live cd. Mandriva is the current favourite as it seems to handle sound better in the live distro. It has always had a good installer but will it see the extra partitions or should I use Partition Magic before doing the install? I did buy the XP Pro disk and also used Ghost to make an image of the C drive, so nuking XP by mistake would not be a total disaster but would rather it didn't happen. As an alternative to Partition Magic, is it possible to use the live distro partition tool before install, I think Knppix can do this?
Any replies/suggestions/advice greatly appreciated.
great orme
7 Posts
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Posted July 7th, 2006 20:00
Thanks AlxMAX for the info. Exactly what I wanted to hear. I did buy the XP Pro disk with the Inspiron so presume I can always reinstall if absolutely necessary, even if the fast reinstall is no longer available. Could I also ghost that partition to recover it completely if I need to? Presume I can use fixmbr if I want to get rid of Linux boot loader later and then copy the ghost image to the partition.
So, the weekend will tell!!!!
@great orme wrote:
Presume I can use fixmbr if I want to get rid of Linux boot loader later and then copy the ghost image to the partition.
So, the weekend will tell!!!!
No, ANY tool you use to scribble on the MBR will remove your ability to use the restore partition. The easiest thing to do is back up the original MBR and save it somewhere. It's not hard... boot the liveCD of your choice and dd it to a file, then save the file.
Then shrink the Windows partition, and leave the other two alone. When you install Linux, ignore them and Linux will too. If you need to use the restore partition, put the backed-up MBR back, then boot to it and restore.
I did this a couple times just to prove to myself that I could, then I shrank Windows and installed SuSE.great orme
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Posted January 30th, 2007 20:00
Thanks for the replies. I first posted about this last May. First attempt totally nuked everything but found this www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm and restored everything to as delivered. Then installed Kubuntu and for such a bargain laptop it performs superbly. Only problem is Firefox loads pages v. slowly in Kubuntu but is like lightning in XP. Wireless is superb at home through a Dell router and on holiday in Florida it picked up three signals from the apartment complex and got me connected straightaway.
AlxMAX
168 Posts
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Posted July 7th, 2006 13:00