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Partitioning for Windows 7 and Fedora 11 dual boot

Partitioning for Windows 7 and Fedora 11 dual boot

I am new to Linux and would like to install Fedora 11 on a notebook with Windows 7 already installed. Currently the HDD has 2 primary partitions (System Reserved and C:), some free space and an extended partition (D: with user data).

Asked by: Guest | Views: 289
Total answers/comments: 1
Guest [Entry]

"First, BACK UP THE DATA

Second...I know this isn't exactly what you wanted, but if you want Linux installed with Windows intact for your partitions, have you looked at Wubi? It installed Ubuntu into a file that resides inside the Windows filesystem, so you wouldn't have to worry so much about partitioning. It's a full Linux install too, no emulation.

Third, if you want to alter partitions a bit to resize or delete them, try booting Rescue Is Possible (a liveboot Linux rescue disc) with X and use gparted to alter partitions. Whenever you edit partitions, though, you run the risk of losing data! So make sure you have a backup.

Personally I think you could probably get away with having two partitions added to the notebook, a / and a swap, on top of your reserved partition and Windows partition. The /boot and / partitions are there traditionally for rescue purposes or if you overflow your storage capabilities; you should be able to boot with a rescue disk and mount the /boot partition to get to some basic state of functionality.

Another possibility is to research going with a swap file instead of a swap partition.

My advice would first be to look at Wubi which has the least chance of damaging your data, then think about not using a separate data and /boot partition (just a swap and data), then think long and hard about playing with partition schemes, in that order.

Hope that helps!"