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I'm trying to set up a dual boot Lenovo Ideapad that came with Windows 7.

Lenovo uses up 4 partitions out of the box. They are:

(unnamed) 14GB

LENOVO D: 30GB

SYSTEM_DRV 200MB

Window7_OS C: 400GB

I have no idea what the first 3 do. Ideally, I could shrink the Windows7_OS partition (down to, say, 100GB) and then install Ubuntu on extended partitions created in the freed space.

The first sticking point is that I can't resize ntfs partitions from gparted. The problem has been encountered before in other threads: How can I resize NTFS partition in GParted? . I have tried everything there with no luck.

I also can not seem to resize the Windows partition from Windows. The "Virtual Disk Manager" keeps throwing a cryptic "The parameter is incorrect." error when I try. I don't know what to do about that.

I tried using:

ntfsresize -s100GB -f -b /dev/sdb2

(/dev/sbd2 is the Windows7_OS partition) After that operation, the "Virtual Disk Manager" in Windows sees a 400GB "volume" with 100GB of capacity.

While it appears that I have succeeded in taking away space from Windows, resizing from either OS is still not successful for the same reasons as before.

Disabling "virtual memory" in Windows does not fix my problems. Neither does running "chkdsk \r" or "chkdsk \f" several times. I also defragged from Windows with no luck.

What can I do?

My best current guess: make a Windows 7 install disc (how?) , wipe clean the hard drive (it's a new computer), install Ubuntu, create an extra partition, install Windows on that (which I assume will somehow leave the partition table alone), then reinstall GRUB (or maybe all of Ubuntu) to get over the MBR problem.

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dranxo
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2 Answers2

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If you're wiping it completely clean, you might as well install windows first by disc and then ubuntu with a downloaded install disc.

I just did this and it lets you choose what size you want to make each while you download ubuntu (that is why it is good to have windows there first).

EDIT: Eliah Kagan pointed out that since your problem seems to be partitioning in ubuntu, you might want to partition while installing windows and then just have ubuntu install on the rest.

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Tom Prats
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  • I personally liked the partitioning manager better in ubuntu and so when I installed windows I didn't deal with partitioning at all. Then when I installed ubuntu, I used their partitioning tool to do it at the beginning of the install – Tom Prats Aug 01 '12 at 00:46
  • ah good call, didnt think of that – Tom Prats Aug 01 '12 at 04:36
  • i edited it to include your info – Tom Prats Aug 01 '12 at 04:40
  • Cool. (I had thought partitioning during the initial Windows installation was what you'd meant originally.) – Eliah Kagan Aug 01 '12 at 04:41
  • I'm not too good with Windows. How many partitions does it want? Why would my computer come with 4 already made? – dranxo Aug 01 '12 at 07:24
  • well i know it needs at least 3, windows, linux, and boot. but the fourth is tiny so i just wouldn't care about it. the reason for it coming with 4 out of the box doesn't make sense to me, but it's probably not important – Tom Prats Aug 01 '12 at 16:29
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I ruined my system, because I didn't realize this: Windows I believe installs and take the whole amount of space on your disk, for it's partition. You can make a USB bootable (google it) and try out Linux, then just use F12 during boot up, to choose to boot to the USB, don't follow the instructions to change windows to select the USB to boot, that's messed up. LOL

Jeff Cummings
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