~Toughbooktalk~

Sounds familiar. The disk was probably originally partitioned with a GUID Partition Table (GPT). I think I got myself out of that one with a utility called sgdisk to --zap all GPT data so that it stops fighting with MBR partition info. Gparted might still get confuzzled without this. Look it up.

Rgr that... I was reading about others with chdsk flags and such giving them issues but I had not had any problems with windows chdsk.

Your thought sounds similar, like it would induce an issue of like effect. I'll give it a go later today.

Oh boy... looked at that quaint piece of software. Yeah. I might have to use that, but I'm going to have to back up my Linux side before I do. That looks like a heap of trouble if I fubar it. And I have two weeks left on the ship.

My two cents, now that I have reliable internet and a few moments here are 5 steps:
Just get another hard drive caddy, and another hard drive of your choice.
1. Put your Linux of choice on one hard drive and caddy
2. Put your Windows of choice on another hard drive and caddy.
3. Don't mess with dual boot systems unless you really, really need to do it.
4. Plan your dive....and then dive your plan.
5. Let us know

UNCNDL

I already carry enough crap when I go back and forth from the ship anyway. Since I only use windows for a select few applications (mainly because WINE isn't supporting USB yet...), I'm loath to carry another harddrive just for windows.

The more I'm looking at the matter, the more I'm looking at simply shifting to a SDD and building the new harddrive from scratch the way I want it. I don't generally have a problem with dual boots as long as I get the setup right in the beginning. My issue this time was a used computer and a vista key on the bottom of a comp w/ win 7. So I was looking to avoid dickering with it. W/ the SSD and legit Win7, I'll get to set up the drive the way I like.

What issues do you normally encounter with dual boots that causes you to advise against? This sort of thing (resizing the drives post install) is the only issue I've had with any of my dual boots.

1. I dual boot with two caddies, but since I'm changing flavours all the time I need to. (heh! my 31J is speaking English)

2. Here is the lazy man's way.
a. Install W7 and updates.
b. Install Mint 17.? and let it do the disc work.

IOW M$ first....then Linux.

droppointalpha wrote:2. Here is the lazy man's way.
a. Install W7 and updates.
b. Install Mint 17.? and let it do the disc work.

This is how I've done it in the past. Works fine, since the GRUB and Linux installs are used to being an addition.

I will just ensure I partition and allocate a nice small section for Windows to go to, then leave the rest for my partitions for linux and storage space.

My feeling is let Mint worry about it and use the slider dealie for the partitions. Probably what you are doing.

To complicate matters some OS's recommend a separate partition for /. Then the rest for storage. I never worry about it.....I just put grub on the linux part.

Clarification "/" is Home directory............................clarification and confusion start and end with c and n.

Sorry if I am not clear.

Jeff

You can not go wrong with Jeff's suggestions above. I like fresh installs and change things around frequently.
What I remember when using Windows, was it always seemed to do updates and wanted to re-start afterwards.
Since Windows is important to you, how are you managing your backups of the Windows side?
BTW, I think "/" means root, not home. I think home = home and / = root but I've been wrong many times.
Good luck
Kris

Normally I do fresh installs. This computer was a used model for cheap with nothing but a power cord for accessories. I didn't have a spare key to reinstall windows after wiping and repartitioning the drive. Hence, when I installed mint and shrunk the windows partition, it only let me go so far because Windows apparently puts some immovable files related to backups in the MIDDLE of the partition it is on.

Windows is not important for anything actually 'saved' on it. I just have some software I use that I can't run in WINE because of the lack of USB support.

The start of this thread was the hope that maybe someone knew the answer to a question about the issue I was having with being unable to even touch the windows drive using any partition editor, as I was intending to try force the issue on the space it was hogging. I had to archive stuff and move it off the drive and kept running out of room during the archiving process.

When I get home, I'll have a copy of Win7 legit waiting and I will commence formating a new SSD and installing win7 on a much smaller allocation of space. Then, I'll be at a point of wondering how to replicate my setup in the simplest manner possible while making sure I don't miss any of my favorite things.