Hi Tongqing, I have recently installed SuSe Linux 11.2 on a Dell Latitude E6510 and I can confirm that the system comes with Windows 7 pre-installed on 4 primary partitions: - Dell Utility - Windows Recovery - Windows - Reader (for Latitude ON) I was not sure if Linux cares to have the bootloader (grub in my case) on an extended partition. Maybe, someone else can give some input. I decided to go the safe route and so I moved/resized the Windows partitions with gparted in order to have space and a primary partition available for /. It was straight forward and worked without problems. I defined all operations in the gparted queue and everything was done in one run. Of course, you have to copy partitions before you can delete them. So, I did several resize-copy-delete-opertations in a row. At the end, Windows was still able to boot/run. I do not remember but it might have complained about the hard disk integrity after the first boot and it forced a system check. After that, there were no troubles.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ If you need further details I can give you my fstab or other information off list. Cheers, christian Zhou, Tongqing (NIH/VRC) [E] wrote: > Dear All, > > > > I am trying to set up a dual boot system on a new Dell laptop factory > installed with 64-bit Windows 7 professional. > > > > Model: Dell Latitude E6410 > > OS: Windows 7 Professional > > MEM: 8G > > CPU: Corei7 > > HD: 500GB > > > > I first shrank the HD with Win7 to give ~250GB space to the new OS, I > then installed from DVD, so far, I tested Red Hat 5 workstation, Fedora > 13, Ubantu 10, all of them complained that I don’t have enough space to > put partition…..Further googling found out that DELL had put some hidden > partitions (Dell Utility, Recovery, and a partition named READER) on the > HD and there is a limit to 4 primary partitions. > > > > Did anyone have any success? > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > Tongqing > > > > *Tongqing Zhou, Ph.D. * > > Staff Scientist > > Structural Biology Section > > Vaccine Research Center, NIAID/NIH > > Building 40, Room 4607B > > 40 Convent Drive, MSC3027 > > Bethesda, MD 20892 > > (301) 594-8710 (Tel) > > (301) 793-0794 (Cell) > > (301) 480-2658 (Fax) > > */******************************************************************/*// > > */The information in this e-mail and any of its attachments is > confidential and may contain sensitive information. It should not be > used by anyone who is not the original intended recipient. If you have > received this e-mail in error please inform the sender and delete it > from your mailbox or any other storage devices. National Institute of > Allergy and Infectious Diseases shall not accept liability for any > statements made that are sender's own and not expressly made on behalf > of the NIAID by one of its representatives./* > > */******************************************************************/* > > > -- _______________________________________________________________________ Dr. Christian Biertümpfel Laboratory of Molecular Biology NIDDK/National Institutes of Health phone: +1 301 402 4647 9000 Rockville Pike, Bldg. 5, Rm. B1-03 fax: +1 301 496 0201 Bethesda, MD 20892-0580 USA email: biertumpf...@niddk.nih.gov _______________________________________________________________________