Disc Partitioning Problem with new Dell XPS Laptop

I have just bought a Dell XPS and want to mult-boot with Linux. I have
already build a similar system with my desktop although this machine is very
pre-Vista!

The PC has a 500GB (465.76) drive.

The partitioning structure is:
EISA Configuration 125MB (any one know what this is for?)
Recovery (D) 10GB
OS (C) 235.85GB
Unallocated 219.78GB

I am very disappointed that Dell have sacrificed three primaries for a
single OS!

Disc Manager wont allow me the shrink the C: drive any smaller despite only
having a few GB of programs on it. I would like to know why this
restriction applies and if I will cause problems if I try to shrink it with
a third party tools bearing in mind that Partition Magic apparently has a
problem with drives over 400GB.

Thanks in advance.

Em Sábado, 4 de Outubro de 2008 17:17, T escreveu:

> I have just bought a Dell XPS and want to mult-boot with Linux. I have
> already build a similar system with my desktop although this machine is
> very pre-Vista!
>
> The PC has a 500GB (465.76) drive.
>
> The partitioning structure is:
> EISA Configuration 125MB (any one know what this is for?)
> Recovery (D) 10GB
> OS (C) 235.85GB
> Unallocated 219.78GB
>
> I am very disappointed that Dell have sacrificed three primaries for a
> single OS!
>
> Disc Manager wont allow me the shrink the C: drive any smaller despite
> only
> having a few GB of programs on it. I would like to know why this
> restriction applies and if I will cause problems if I try to shrink it
> with a third party tools bearing in mind that Partition Magic apparently
> has a problem with drives over 400GB.
>

No, linux can be installed to logical partitions... create an extendend
partition on those Unallocated 219.78GB, then inside create 3 logical
partitions (2 ext3 and 1 swap) for /, /home and swap.
25Gb is more that enought for /
2GB is way more than enought for swap
use the rest for /home (the users area)

regards

There are some important limitations to the Vista partitioning tool
that you should keep in mind: you can only shrink and expand NTFS o
RAW (unformatted) partitions; when you shrink, there are some unmovabl
files such as page files or shadow copy storage areas that inhibit th
amount of shrinkage allowed; you cannot extend a partition int
unallocated space to the left (lower disk addresses) of the partition t
be added to; you cannot move around unallocated space; if you have to
many bad clusters on the disk, then you cannot shrink a partition on it

Boot-It NG is a shareware partition management utility that can be use
to manage the shrinking and extending of partitions better than Vista'
built-in tool. It has an old DOS style interface, but it works well.
You can get it here
'Boot Manager, Partition Manager, and Drive Image Utility - BootIt Nex
Generation
(http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/boo...generation.htm
I downloaded the free trial version and burned it to a CD with th
included program MakeDisk.exe in order to be able to move som
unallocated space immediately behind one of my four partitions that
wanted to extend. I just booted from the CD, clicked on the menu choic
for "Partition Work", and then used the "partition slide" concept t
move the unallocated space. The TerabyteUnlimited site has a good dea
of documentation, tutorials, answers to FAQs, videos, etc. for how t
use the program
'TeraByte Unlimited :: Support :: BootIt Next Generation
(http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/sup...generation.htm

--
LeeTuto

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In addition to lee's post the D: partition and the EISA partition relat
to the Dell Recovery system and not vista If you create recovery DVD'
you should be able to reclaim that spac

--
barman5

Regards,
*Nigel*
the beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do no
understand.,- frank herbert