Non-destructive? Don't get me started

[tattaloop]

So, I bought this new Hewlett P 17inch laptop and it worked fine. Needless to say, I soon changed that.

I have a old thinkpad with linux and no Win software on the HDD, so I thought I would eventually put linux on the new HP too. I decided to do dual-boot and keep Vista, at least for a while. In preparation for this I downloaded gparted. This is a linux distribution that you load onto a USB stick, and then you boot from it. It includes an application that does non-destructive repartitioning... so they say...

I shrunk the NTFS partition to about half the size it was before and left the rest of the HDD empty, then shutdown to reboot.

There Vista was, gone The computer was asking me to put in the Vista install disk, which, in my case, I have not got.

The shrunken NTFS partition is still visible when I boot gparted, but Vista not works.

Oh well, I was planning to put linux on it anyway. So I used my thinkpad to download the latest Slackware DVD image, from which to make a bootable DVD+R.

Spoke too soon. The burner application kept stopping with "input/output error", so I assume that the thinkpad's DVD player is buggered. Copied the image to my mother's Win XP laptop and tried to burn it there. Application said it was a success, but I couldn't boot from it. This happened with two different burner applications. They both said they had done it, but it would not boot.

I now have this shiny new Pewlett Hackard, and the only system I can get it to run is gparted, the tiny linux on the stick, with the old kernel.

Non destructive repartitioning? If I start laughing I might not stop. I think I have got one of my heads coming on.

[Worldlife]

Glad I am not that clever to get into the mess you are in

Wonder if there will be a guru to wave the magic wand of words to get things sorted

[tommy t]

http://neosmart.net/blog/2006/easybc...-mac-os-x-bsd/ has the app that maybe helpful to you easy bcd nice little app and free too, just not sure if it should be installed to the vista partition or not if not it should work,(also read all the info prior to using it as getting something wrong may mean re-installing everything) as for the vista not having a disk, is there a hidden partition on your hdd? as dell pc have one incase you need to re-install o/s, this prob is similar to dual booting vista/xp as both overwrite the mbr, so you can only boot to 1 o/s, you may still need the vista disk to perform a repair to the mbr then with the help of bcd you should have the choice of 2 o/s at the boot screen for 30 secs (default) as for linux i know little of it, except to say it has been known to still be present after a format

[tattaloop]

Done it. I used the thinkpad to copy the linux burner application executable (growisofs, if anyone cares) onto the USB stick that had gparted on it. I copied the image onto the stick. I booted gparted on the HP and used growisofs and made a DVD+R. It booteth! Thinkpad dvd machine must have gone wrong.

Don't know about the one in my mother's Dell.

Going to wipe the HP HDD and put linux on it. If Vista doesn't want to know, that's Vista's problem.

[bouncingjohn]

Bit late now, but you should have been able to do all your partitioning from within Vista itself. e.g.: http://www.vistarewired.com/2007/02/...-windows-vista

So, I bought this new Hewlett P 17inch laptop and it worked fine. Needless to say, I soon changed that.

I have a old thinkpad with linux and no Win software on the HDD, so I thought I would eventually put linux on the new HP too. I decided to do dual-boot and keep Vista, at least for a while. In preparation for this I downloaded gparted. This is a linux distribution that you load onto a USB stick, and then you boot from it. It includes an application that does non-destructive repartitioning... so they say...

I shrunk the NTFS partition to about half the size it was before and left the rest of the HDD empty, then shutdown to reboot.

There Vista was, gone The computer was asking me to put in the Vista install disk, which, in my case, I have not got.

The shrunken NTFS partition is still visible when I boot gparted, but Vista not works.

Oh well, I was planning to put linux on it anyway. So I used my thinkpad to download the latest Slackware DVD image, from which to make a bootable DVD+R.

Spoke too soon. The burner application kept stopping with "input/output error", so I assume that the thinkpad's DVD player is buggered. Copied the image to my mother's Win XP laptop and tried to burn it there. Application said it was a success, but I couldn't boot from it. This happened with two different burner applications. They both said they had done it, but it would not boot.

I now have this shiny new Pewlett Hackard, and the only system I can get it to run is gparted, the tiny linux on the stick, with the old kernel.

Non destructive repartitioning? If I start laughing I might not stop. I think I have got one of my heads coming on.

Originally Posted by tattaloop

if you can use the recovery disk or the recovery tools from your hard disk try to run by pressing F11.

i dont know if linux is using the same file system with the windows which is the NTFS.

[tattaloop]

Too late. I have now got two partitions, formatted as ext3 and swap. Anyway I never got any Vista disks. So Linux it is, as usual.

[tattaloop]

Can't make the wireless work. The relevant component is an Atheros. I have one of these for the thinkpad and use the Madwifi driver package. Only problem is, the Atheros in this Hewlard Packett is a new variety of Atheros which Madwifi does not support. So I am tethered to the router.

Why do they have to change the Atheros? What was wrong with the old one?