Update On Windows Vista

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Charles256
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Update On Windows Vista

Post by Charles256 »

Talk all the crap you want too about Vista but it just let me switch to dual booting into ubuntuu without fear of losing windows data. How you ask? Easy, click start then right click on computers and select "manage". From this point go to disk management, select your hard drive and select shrink. Enter the amount you wish to shrink by and then format the newly alloted free space and make a new partition all without ever having to reboot so that there is no doubt in your mind your data is still there. I know partition resizing exists outside of vista but I was always afraid to use them because it required me to boot up from a disk most of the time and make my changes there. This way I KNOW (with my own eyes) that windows is still working because all the work is done with windows running.

End the rant because I have GOT to go install 64 bit Ubuntu so i can fully enjoy all my RAM. :)
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Benjamin
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Post by Benjamin »

LOL That shrink option will only shrink the drive providing there is no swap, snapshot or system files at the end of the drive. You appear to be one of the lucky few it [s]works[/s] worked for.
Charles256
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Post by Charles256 »

If you're having that problem I refer you to google for the term : windows vista "shrink"
Or if you're especially lazy:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows- ... -problems/
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Benjamin
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Post by Benjamin »

Code: Select all

while ($solution = try_unsolicited_solution())
{
    echo "didn't work, try again\n";
}

echo "http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php works great!";
Charles256
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Post by Charles256 »

Mhm.. So you run off a live CD? What good is that? It's great for trying it out but if I want to install all my drivers I need then it needs to actually be installed. However, I do appreciate the smart allick reply. I was just responding to your comment "one of the lucky few" and wanted everyone else to know there are solutions out there besides giving up.
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Benjamin
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Post by Benjamin »

That is a bootable partition manager.

I didn't give up. I wasted over 2 hours trying to deal with the idiosyncrasies of a windows home brew partition manager that doesn't work when there is data on the disk that it doesn't know how to move.
Charles256
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Post by Charles256 »

Hmm.Guess you didn't read my first post where I specifically mentioned I didn't want to use a bootable partition manager because I couldn't convince myself that it worked and all my data would be safe when I booted back up into windows? Oh well. It's there though if you decide to check it out. :) You're missing the entire point of me starting this thread though. Being excited about having an easy way to start using ubuntu. :-D
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Benjamin
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Post by Benjamin »

Yeah I missed that part. I trust gparted enough not to lose any data, but anytime you do anything with partitions you should back everything up. I mean even with Partition Magic, or the new Vista partition manager, what would happen if your cat steps on your power strip switch and turns off power to your computer in the middle of the process? I think ubuntu comes with gparted as well.

I guess I just don't get excited about anything Windows. I mean at this point, even if they come out with something really cool, I have such a bad taste in my mouth for that company that I probably wouldn't care.
Charles256
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Post by Charles256 »

Yeah, so why'd you evil up my thread? :-D It was all joy until you dropped by and the prejudice hit me with a smack. Oh well. I think if the cat would have stepped on the power cord it wouldn't have matter because I was literally installing a program while the partitioning was happening ( yes the program completed it's install and worked ) so I'm pretty sure it was a safe way of doing it. :)
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Benjamin
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Post by Benjamin »

Charles256 wrote:Yeah, so why'd you evil up my thread? :-D
It was bound to happen, I just made it quick and painless.
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AKA Panama Jack
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Post by AKA Panama Jack »

Just don't use any other partitioning program since you used Vista to adjust things. Vista does some weird things when creating new partitions. Once you adjust partitions with Vista you are locked into using Vista to manage partitions and that has limitations. I learned my lesson the hard way. I repartitioned the hard drive using Vista on my laptop but wanted to move the partitions around so decided to use Partition Magic 8. It reported all kinds of partitioning errors in the partitions I altered using Vista. I even tried two other partition programs and they both either reported partition errors or failed to recognise the partitions.

If you try to FIX them using something like Partition Magic 8 you will usually end up completely LOSING the partitions you were trying to fix.

The funny thing is if you modify the partitions using Partition Magic 8 and never use the Vista Partition Management everything works great but as soon as you use Vista to alter any partitions you are screwed.
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