Fed up with M$ Window$ !!! Why is Tux leaving me alone???

[fullmetalcoder]

Got a terrible problem : I can't manage to install linux on my PC!

I have only one primary FAT32 partition on my HDD and I would like to shrink it without any data loss! I found a DOS based program called partition resizer, ran it from a bootable floppy and ask it to shrink my partition so as to have free space where to create some swap and ext2 partition to install a linux distribution. But... partition resizer didn't manage to shrink anything !!! Anybody could tell me where I can find a FREE software that could do what I want???

Help me !!!!

[high_flyer]

parted and qparted.
Linux based and with Qt frontend.

[Codepoet]

Don't forget to make a backup of all important data you have. Those tools work almost always...

The easiest way is probably to get a live CD like Knoppix and boot that one. Then you can use qtparted:
Open a shell
sudo su
qtparted

[fullmetalcoder]

and where could I find a (small) live CD with qtparted in it?
Moreover, as a windows user I'm not familiar with shell, could explain me a little more???

[Codepoet]

That may get a little complicated without shell knowledge. But I'll try.
I've just searched for a "small" live CD:
http://trinityhome.org/trk/download.php
That's around 80MB but I have never tried that CD. I use for such tasks Knoppix:
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html
Around 650MB.

Both ones need to be burned on a real CD. Then reboot your computer using your new CD. Just use default settings. But under Trinity you may have to select GUI mode - runlevel 5 or graphical login - I don't know the option there.

When your desktop has booted, start a shell: Under Knoppix hit the "start" - Button (under KDE it is a K) and select Run command. Type "konsole" and hit enter. There's a menu entry too, but I can't remember the exact name.
Now you have a shell / command line: Type
sudu su
(and hit enter) to become the super user (root - somewhat like administrator). Afterwards
qtparted
and again enter. Now the partition editor will start. There resize your partition. For Linux you should at least have 10GB of free space.
Save, quit, reboot and start from your Linux CD. What distribution do you plan to use?


If that sounds to difficult for the moment you can also try a "virtual" Linux: Download the VMWare Player from http://www.vmware.com and for example http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vm/ubuntu.html


Do you have a second PC to ask questions while you are installing? If yes you can ask me also by Jabber (or ICQ if there's no other way...)

[yop]

I have only one primary FAT32 partition on my HDD and I would like to shrink it without any data loss!

AFAIK every linux distribution does exactly what you are asking before it starts to install anything. I am certain about Suse, when the installation cd/dvd boots presents you a nice and very friendly gui that allows you to setup averything that concerns your installation. If you have a windows partion then by default it leaves it intact and only srinks it if it is necessary for the installation. I think that the rest of the "user friendly" distros (MEPIS, Ubuntu, Mandrake) have such functionality as well.

[wysota]

You'll be probably installing from a CD or DVD. It is possible that this distirbution will be able to resize partitions. Remember to defragment a partition before resizing it.

[fullmetalcoder]

Thanks all of you! I'll try to do it!

[GreyGeek]

Thanks all of you! I'll try to do it!

Let me add two recommendations.

1) Don't use ext2. When it comes time to reformat the new partition on which you will install Linux select the ReiserFS. It is a journaling filing system that recovers from all sorts of errors without hardly a moments notice. I call it "self healing". I've been using it exclusively since it first appeared in SUSE 6.4. I used SUSE 6.4 in production for 18 months running a BBS system where taxpayers could download the status of their refunds. it preserved the file structure and data during several incidents of lightening, power failures, and UPS failures, even when those failures occured over the weekend when no one was around to "recover" the system. It would just restart, heal any file problems and continue on, unlike the Windows based WildCat BBS system it replaced. That system was so unreliable it was turned off after 5pm and on week ends because IT staff got tired of coming in after hours or on week ends to reboot, rebuild or reinstall. They tried replacing the the video cards, the HDs, even different versions of the OS and Wildcat, but they couldn't keep the BBS running reliably. SUSE 6.4 with the ReiserFS and KDE 1.0 ran for 18 months without unschedules downtimes, which was once a week for ghosting. The clerk who was responsible for it had no prior experience with Linux but said that using KDE 1.0 was no different than using Win95.

Unlike ext2 or its newer cousin, ext3, ReiserFS will not force an fsck if it encounters problems, it fixes them! What's the point of ext3 if it is going to throw you into an fsck when it encounters problems? YOU DON'T WANT to be fscking 30GB or larger HDs. You've got more important things to do with the rest of your WEEK.


2) My I suggest that you download SimplyMepis-3.4.3-rc4.iso and burn it onto a CD.
ftp://ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu/pub/li...mepis/testing/

Don't let its "testing" status put you off. It's a solid release which I've already installed on 5 PCs, and upgraded them all to 3D accelereation and KDE 3.5.0.

MEPIS is a LiveCD that also allows for installation. It uses Synaptic as a front end to apt-get, which is a terrific tool for adding and removing files. Synaptic connects to several Debian repositories where the number of available files is now over 18,000 and climbing.

[fullmetalcoder]

2) My I suggest that you download SimplyMepis-3.4.3-rc4.iso and burn it onto a CD.
ftp://ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu/pub/li...mepis/testing/

Don't let its "testing" status put you off. It's a solid release which I've already installed on 5 PCs, and upgraded them all to 3D accelereation and KDE 3.5.0.

MEPIS is a LiveCD that also allows for installation. It uses Synaptic as a front end to apt-get, which is a terrific tool for adding and removing files. Synaptic connects to several Debian repositories where the number of available files is now over 18,000 and climbing.

nice !!! but I can't download a 600Mb iso file!

[yop]

nice !!! but I can't download a 600Mb iso file!

What did you expect? You're getting a full OS
You can get the ubuntu cds free of charge from https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ It will take sometime until you get them but you don't have to download/buy anything. If you're in a hurry you can go to your local sw store and buy a linux distribution.

[GreyGeek]

nice !!! but I can't download a 600Mb iso file!

Mail your addr to me and I'll send you an ISO of MEPIS no charge.

[fullmetalcoder]

Mail your addr to me and I'll send you an ISO of MEPIS no charge.

Very kind of you but do you live in France???

Moreover I failed shrinking my partition! I defragmented my FAT32 (took 6 hours but I managed to be patient ) Then I booted from an old liveCD I had, logged in as root and I launched QtParted. Until that moment, no problem! QtParted was very long to get infos about my partition but anyway it did it. My real problem is that after validating the resizing operation I got an empty warning box and nothing was actually performed!

Another thing to say : those who have already done a defragmentattion under M$ Win know that some files aren't moved. I noticed those files where everywhere on my disk :
- a few at the beggining
- a lot on the middle
- and too many to take chances of shrinking, If they're really important, at the end

So my questions are : Are they really important? If so how to force moving them? How to perform that damn partition resizing?

[michel]

If you can't download 600mb, can you download roughly ~110mb? If so, there is another Linux bootable with qparted on it called "System Rescue CD" that I used with a lot of success. I wasn't using it to install Linux, but I needed to shrink an NTFS partition on the local network and convert it to UFS (I had to compile Java and needed something crazy like 1.7gb of space for the build directory) slice, and it was by far the easiest way. Along with these tools, it also will autoconfigure your network if you're on one and allow you to go online in a web browser if you need to get help installing Linux. As someone already said, make sure 100% that you scandisk and defrag the drive from Windows before trying to resize it. Otherwise you might get some sort of "sector errors" problems or overwrite fragmented files accidentally.

http://www.sysresccd.org/
Viel Glück!

[Codepoet]

Another thing to say : those who have already done a defragmentattion under M$ Win know that some files aren't moved. I noticed those files where everywhere on my disk :
- a few at the beggining
- a lot on the middle
- and too many to take chances of shrinking, If they're really important, at the end

So my questions are : Are they really important? If so how to force moving them? How to perform that damn partition resizing?

That's probably your swap file. Just delete it or reduce it's size temporarily to zero.

[fullmetalcoder]

That's probably your swap file. Just delete it or reduce it's size temporarily to zero.

Swap file under M$ win??? I've never heard of that! How to make it my bitch???

If you can't download 600mb, can you download roughly ~110mb? If so, there is another Linux bootable with qparted on it called "System Rescue CD" that I used with a lot of success. I wasn't using it to install Linux, but I needed to shrink an NTFS partition on the local network and convert it to UFS (I had to compile Java and needed something crazy like 1.7gb of space for the build directory) slice, and it was by far the easiest way. Along with these tools, it also will autoconfigure your network if you're on one and allow you to go online in a web browser if you need to get help installing Linux. As someone already said, make sure 100% that you scandisk and defrag the drive from Windows before trying to resize it. Otherwise you might get some sort of "sector errors" problems or overwrite fragmented files accidentally.

I downloaded it but currently didn't manage to make it work! Anyway it's not the point now! Are you sure QtParted can resize FAT32 and not only NTFS? If so why did it show me an empty warning and refused to perform the requested operation?

It's driving me mad!!! Help me!!!

[GreyGeek]

Very kind of you but do you live in France???

Moreover I failed shrinking my partition! I defragmented my FAT32 (took 6 hours but I managed to be patient ) Then I booted from an old liveCD I had, logged in as root and I launched QtParted. Until that moment, no problem! QtParted was very long to get infos about my partition but anyway it did it. My real problem is that after validating the resizing operation I got an empty warning box and nothing was actually performed!

Another thing to say : those who have already done a defragmentattion under M$ Win know that some files aren't moved. I noticed those files where everywhere on my disk :
- a few at the beggining
- a lot on the middle
- and too many to take chances of shrinking, If they're really important, at the end

So my questions are : Are they really important? If so how to force moving them? How to perform that damn partition resizing?

If you want to continue to use the Windows partition then I'd imagine those files are important. It has been my observation that the defag program seems to leave important files at the end of the HD for what I would assume would be no other reason than to prevent a dual installation. That's why I use PCMagic 8.0, which moves files that are in the region that will be shrunk.

And yes, I would mail you a CD of SimplyMEPIS-3.4.3.iso, which was just released today, even if you do live in France! I've already burned two CDs.

[fullmetalcoder]

If you want to continue to use the Windows partition then I'd imagine those files are important. It has been my observation that the defag program seems to leave important files at the end of the HD for what I would assume would be no other reason than to prevent a dual installation. That's why I use PCMagic 8.0, which moves files that are in the region that will be shrunk.

And yes, I would mail you a CD of SimplyMEPIS-3.4.3.iso, which was just released today, even if you do live in France! I've already burned two CDs.

You're one of the kindest person I've ever meet! Thanks GreyGeek for allowing a tiny little frog to have his way in the world of freedom!!!

But... What is PCMagic 8.0??? Is that PowerQuest's Partition Magic or a linux software I've never heard of ???

[GreyGeek]

You're one of the kindest person I've ever meet! Thanks GreyGeek for allowing a tiny little frog to have his way in the world of freedom!!!

But... What is PCMagic 8.0??? Is that PowerQuest's Partition Magic or a linux software I've never heard of ???

Just msg me your addr and a fresh CD of SimplyMEPIS-3.4.3 will be on its way!

You're right, it is PQMagic. Version 8.0 is the one I have because it was the first to allow safe repartitions of NTFS. (See what happens when your brain reaches 65 yrs )

[fullmetalcoder]

Just msg me your addr and a fresh CD of SimplyMEPIS-3.4.3 will be on its way!

You're right, it is PQMagic. Version 8.0 is the one I have because it was the first to allow safe repartitions of NTFS. (See what happens when your brain reaches 65 yrs )

We ot a new problem : PQ Magic isn't free! I don't feel like buying a more than 50$ soft that I wouldn't use more than 5 times in my whole life!!!

Is there another program able to do the same job for free?