dual boot- Linux and Windows- Toshiba laptop...

[Fred Erickson]

On Sat, 2008-02-16 at 15:08 -0500, Mike Chalmers wrote:
> On 2/16/08, Fred Erickson <frederickson at iname.com> wrote:
> > On Fri, 2008-02-15 at 19:35 -0500, Mike Chalmers wrote:
> >  > I would like to setup a dual boot configuration on a Toshiba laptop. I
> >  > am first going to reinstall Windows on the Toshiba using the recovery
> >  > discs, because as of now Windows on the Toshiba is messed up. Then I
> >  > am going to install Fedora 8.
> >  >
> >  > I have read several ways to do this and was wondering what the best
> >  > method is to do this?
> >  >
> >  > Many Thanks,
> >  > Preston
> >  >
> >
> >
> > Hello Preston,
> >
> >  I recently setup a new Toshiba laptop to dual boot Vista & Fedora. You
> >  didn't mention which version of Windows your laptop has now but be very
> >  careful how you go about it if you're using Vista.
> >
> >  In the past, I have successfully re-partitioned several drives using
> >  Knoppix or the "Ultimate Boot CD" on earlier versions of Windows so I
> >  didn't anticipate any real problems this time. Vista (Ultimate version)
> >  has a partitioning tool so I thought I'd give it a try. To make a long
> >  story short, the tool did the re-partitioning but Windows wouldn't boot
> >  after and the System Recovery disks wouldn't work either. I was able to
> >  get the Recovery disk to work by repairing the drive with other tools -
> >  so my advice is: Since your Windows is broken (normal?) anyway, create a
> >  new, smaller partition first, leaving enough unallocated space for
> >  Fedora. The Toshiba recovery cd will allow you to re-install Vista on
> >  the smaller drive. Then install Fedora in the unused space.
> >
> >  Good luck,
> >
> > Fred
> >
> >
> >  --
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> >  fedora-list at redhat.com
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> >
> Thanks for the help. Sorry about your troubles with Vista. I am using
> Windows XP. I didn't know that you could create a smaller partition
> using the recovery discs? Is it possible to create a smaller partition
> using the recovery discs so that I can easily install Fedora or do I
> need to resize my Windows partition using a partition program?

I didn't say I used the recovery disk to _make_ a smaller partition. I
said the recovery disk with my computer could be used to restore the
system to an already created smaller partition. It may be possible, I
don't have time now to check that out. Use other tools such as parted or
qtparted to shrink the partition. Since you have XP on your machine, you
probably have a different model with different recovery disk, etc. Mine
is an A215-S4767. 

I was wanting to point out that if you had Vista, there may be a problem
using Vista's build in tools. Vista wanted to keep about 200g of my 250g
drive for itself (figures approx.) I would not accept that. If you
re-install XP first, then re-size, you probably want to clean out
miscellaneous junk Toshiba includes - free software trials, etc, then
you need to de-frag the drive and make sure the swap isn't located in a
portion of the drive you want to give to Linux. Since you are going to
re-install XP anyway, make one smaller drive first, install XP, then
install Fedora. YMMV!!