# I Need Help Please Fast!



## Casheti (May 16, 2007)

I followed these instructions: http://www.maximumpc.com/linux?page=0,1

but I ended up with this:







WHYYYYY!?? 

I am trying again but it seems to be stuck on 0% now when resizing my disk.

What's the f"£$%^*G point of a "Undo changes to partitions" button IF IT DOES FUCK ALL!

I quit.


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## Ripper3 (May 16, 2007)

HAH! The problem I once had too. Any hard drive can supprot a large amount of seperate partitions, although, it no hard drive can support more than 4 primary partitions. That 5th partition is unusable because it's trying to be a primary partition.
You'll need to delete one of the 4 other partitions and then from there, you can make as many logical (I think it's logical... might be called something else... damn this bad memory of mine!) partitions as you like. It'll still work just fine, and be bootable, but it's necesarry as it's a limitation in all hard drives.

EDIT: Sorry, sorry, not logical partiton, cos they're all logical partitions, I meant EXTENDED partitions


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## Casheti (May 16, 2007)

So I have to DELETE a partition?


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## kwchang007 (May 16, 2007)

Casheti said:


> So I have to DELETE a partition?



i think so.  like on my laptop i have 4 partitions (i hate dell....windows, backup copy, media direct, diagnostics ) and i can't make a new one.


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## Ripper3 (May 16, 2007)

Yeah, tis unforetunate. Boot into Vista again and back things up, or else, use something to merge some partitions, or better yet, grab an old hard drive and stick it in the PC.
Ubuntu is worth using, and worth the trouble imo. The installer shouldn't run into any more problems though.


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## Casheti (May 16, 2007)

I have a 20GB IDE but my DVD drive is also IDE so I can't use both at the same time...


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## Deleted member 3 (May 16, 2007)

You can change partition type using tools like Partition magic. ie from primary to extended. 
Also, you know Linux doesn't write NTFS right?


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## Casheti (May 16, 2007)

Yep.


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## Solaris17 (May 16, 2007)

you could fix this by getting partition magic i think i included it on my utility cd if i didnt hit me up what you can do is (well youll need to format) but set some of your partitions to logical that might fix the problem at least i see that as a fix also if you want to get ride of linux format using partition magic then use the fixboot and fixmbr cammands from the xp disk. then use partition magic to set up the linux one and the other you wanted only this time set them to logical that should fix the prob.


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## ktr (May 17, 2007)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> You can change partition type using tools like Partition magic. ie from primary to extended.
> Also, you know Linux doesn't write NTFS right?



you can write to ntfs with a simple program found in add/remove.

edit: the program name is "NTFS Configuration Tool", just search for "ntfs" in add/remove. http://www.ntfs-3g.org/


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## Casheti (May 17, 2007)

Well I think I'll stay away from Linux for now then


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## DIBL (May 17, 2007)

Casheti said:


> Well I think I'll stay away from Linux for now then



It's not that bad -- just a few new things to learn and a few Windows things to forget ...  

Here's great information on how to do partitioning: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/partitioning

A really good tool (and free) to do your partitioning and resizing is GParted Live CD -- get it here: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

It is true that each hard drive only gets to have 4 primary partitions.  But you can have numerous extended partitions within a primary partition.


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## Casheti (May 17, 2007)

Well I don't have enough room to make any more partitions.. and how can I make an extended?


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## DIBL (May 17, 2007)

Casheti -- assuming you just made that 4th partition and it is empty, you need to (a) review the material in the first link I gave you, and then (b) delete that 4th partition, which will automatically combine it with the "unusable" space, and then make all of the remaining space your 4th primary partition, and install Linux in that one, using extended partitions for /, /home, and /[swap].

If none of your existing partitions are empty, then I'm not sure how to advise you -- you're going to have to backup the data in one of them in order to re-use it.

Also, you don't want ntfs as the filesystem for Linux -- ext3 is fine, or reiserfs.


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## ktr (May 17, 2007)

In ntfs, you can only have 4 partition on a single hdd, that is why linux wont let you partition a new one, reguardless of another format.


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## NinkobEi (May 17, 2007)

eh to heck with partitions, I say. its much easier to keep your drive one big chunk. although I dont recommend defragging it while you go to the movie..


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## DIBL (May 18, 2007)

ktr said:


> In ntfs, you can only have 4 partition on a single hdd, that is why linux wont let you partition a new one, reguardless of another format.



The "only 4 primary partitions per hard drive" rule is not a ntfs issue, it is a BIOS limit (says here). So it's a limit for any OS on your Intel or AMD platform.


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