-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Friday 15 August 2003 09:54 am, Bilal Ahmad wrote: > I have bought recently a HP Pavilion ze5300 laptop w/ a 40G hard drive (38G > actually), and with Windows XP Pro. I want to partition the hard drive so > that I leave 18G for XP Pro and 20G for Debian. Windows Disk Defragmenter > leaves a chunk of files right in the middle of the disk: > > > /////*****************_________________*****_______________________________ >_____ > > > > /// ---- System files > *** ---- Contiguous files > ___ ---- Free space > > > > I have tried Diskeeper as well (including at boot time), and couldn't get > those files to move towards the beginning. In the notes somewhere it says > that Diskeeper won't move files that are in the Windows exclusions lists, > such as the space for hibernate mode. > > Is there another way to get the those files to move towards the beginning > without having to wipe out the whole disk first? Any help would be greatly > appreciated. (PS: This will be my first attempt at installing a linux > system. There is no floppy disk in this computer; It has a DVD-ROM/CD-RW, > however.) > > Thanks. > Bilal
Greetings Bilal: I experienced the same problem as you when I bought my used Gateway laptop with a 10Gb hard drive. I tried to move those files to the front of the drive, but it wouldn't work! Finally, I acquired a copy of Partition Magic. I think it was version 7.0 or something. It *will* move those files carefully to the front of the drive and then part it so you can then begin the process of installing Gnu/Linux on the freed area. I was very nervous as I proceeded to use the program, but after reading all the documentation that came with it, I was very pleased to see how well it did the job. M$-XP never complained about it after it was all over. I was then able to install my favorite OS (Libranet) on the 5Gb partition. Still, you have much more space than I have, so it should be much easier for you! heehee. As far as I know, Partition Magic and one other commercial program like it are all that will modify an NTFS drive. The free software that I looked at was only able to modify the older FAT style of M$ file formats :( Hopefully, this will change in the near future! Still, it has been over a year since I did this, perhaps the free alternatives are able to slice an NTFS drive today. Good luck to you. Wishing you well. - -- Jaye Inabnit<ARS ke6sls>A Debian-Gnu/Linux user If it's stupid, but works, it ain't stupid. I SHOUT JUST FOR FUN. Free software, in a free world, for a free spirit. Please Support freedom! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux) Comment: My key available from www.keyserver.net iD8DBQE/PRjTZHBxKsta6kMRAkNLAKDgBvRF0EQrZcl6ngxwxma0L3uTVACgprZU vRj2WyZc/T4Tdga843Zd1KE= =R4WT -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
