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Dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 7?

rated 0 times [ 2] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 1816 / 3 Years ago, mon, august 2, 2021, 6:30:35

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
" or "chkdsk " 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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urvedcaly

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3 Years ago

answered 3 Years ago humbire · Accepted Answer

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.