Install alongside windows option

rjley

Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:26:12 pm

swarfendor437 wrote:Hi rjey, welcome to the Zorin forum. First things first though - please provide us with:

1. Make/Model of Laptop/Desktop (or whether Homebrew!), Memory, Graphics.
2. Whether attempting install via USB flashdrive/SD Card/DVD
3. Have you checked out these posts?:

http://zoringroup.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 1955#p7407
http://zoringroup.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 1658#p5649

Have you also checked out my installation alongside XP and 7 on my veoh.com channel? Link is in my sig.

Thanks..will get back to you w/answers

rjley

Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:24:22 pm

rjley wrote:
swarfendor437 wrote:Hi rjey, welcome to the Zorin forum. First things first though - please provide us with:

1. Make/Model of Laptop/Desktop (or whether Homebrew!), Memory, Graphics.
2. Whether attempting install via USB flashdrive/SD Card/DVD
3. Have you checked out these posts?:

http://zoringroup.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 1955#p7407
http://zoringroup.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 1658#p5649

Have you also checked out my installation alongside XP and 7 on my veoh.com channel? Link is in my sig.

It's a HP G72 Notebook
4GB memory
Intel I-3
Intel HD Graphics

Trying to install from DVD.

I'll look at the above posts in the meantime.

Thanks

rjley

Sat Jun 23, 2012 11:15:12 pm

: CM.jpg (103.92 KiB)

This is from windows, does it help?

Wolfman

Sun Jun 24, 2012 4:09:16 am

Hi,

all you need to do is resize C: drive and leave the other partitions intact, lets say that you shrink it by 100GB, this will leave you some empty space, with that space; you should first create an "Extended Partition", then you can use that space for 3 new partitions.

Swarf has already said it, make sure you create a recovery disk set before starting out!!.

root ( / is the mount point) of about 15-20 GB
swap which should be equal to or double your RAM (swap has no mount point)
home ( /home is the mount point) which should using the rest of the space available, roughly 80GB

When you come to install, select something else when asked where you want to install and use the already created partitions which root and home should be formated to Ext4.

Hope this helps. See also:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1616

Regards Wolfman

rjley

Sun Jun 24, 2012 4:51:34 am

The problem I've been having is I can only resize via windows. I can shrink volume, get unallocated space but then only have option to create a new simple volume with it. When I do this, Gparted or Zorin installer doesn't see it.

If I try to resize partition w/Gparted or Zorin, I keep getting error messages.

Wolfman

Sun Jun 24, 2012 5:56:36 am

Hi,

did you download and create a Gparted disk, use that to start with, you are most likely being locked out by the onboard security system which is why you need to use a 3rd party disk which won't mount Windows while trying to create your partitions!!.

See also:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/display- ... elp-manual

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html

Regards Wolfman

rjley

Sun Jun 24, 2012 1:11:27 pm

I get error messages using departed when trying to re size disk. I do have a disk of it I boot from.

rjley

Sun Jun 24, 2012 2:21:09 pm

swarfendor437 wrote:Hi everyone, (5th time trying to post this! - internet issues!). Like I said before (I have an HP Mini with virtually the same layout - just a smaller hard drive!). What you see are 4 Primary partitions (HP/M$ don't want you to put anything else on there, so just shrinking Windows will not suffice.
(You undertake to do the following AT YOUR OWN RISK!)
1. Create Recovery DVD's if the system allows it to do a factory restore - useful if you want to sell the machine later.
2. Back up the last 2 partitions to an external drive or 32 Gb flash drive.
3. Delete the backed up partitions.
4. Run Chkdsk then Defrag windows before resizing to make way for Zorin.
5. Resize Windows partition to make room for Zorin.
6. Create in this order;
a. '/' (root partition that will boot by marking it as '/') and format to ext4 file system.
b. '/home' - bear in mind that if you intend to use wine (windows apps) they will be stored in your /home folder not '/'.
c. 'swap' - make this the same size as your memory - this should be the maximum size you will need - double the Ram size is for machines with 2 Gb or less RAM.
7. Complete the install and choose the mbr as the location for your GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader).

If you want to get proof of the pudding, download Ultimate Edition 3.3 that now comes with KDE Partition tool - it tells you why you can't do anything if there is an issue with the hard drive layout!

By deleting the last 2 partitions, are you referring to D: Recovery & G:System or D: Recovery & HP Tools? I would think you would need the System Partition.

rjley

Mon Jun 25, 2012 11:45:52 pm

swarfendor437 wrote:From your Windows image the last 2 partitions are D:/ and HP Tools - but back them up first! then follow my instructions of previous post - YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK - reminder!

What do you recommend doing all the re-sizing with, windows or gparted?

Wolfman

Tue Jun 26, 2012 7:45:48 am

Gparted

rjley

Tue Jun 26, 2012 3:42:28 pm

Big Problem...

On my HP, I backed up my recovery drive onto 4 disks, deleted the partition, then created a new one w/Gparted. Then tried creating the new partitions manually (/boot, swap, /, /home)

I only got as far as the 1st step, tried re sizing the drive to create a 258mb partition (/boot) to be placed at the beginning. It took so long and said it was moving (or re sizing) the rest of the 74gb in the progress bar.

After it was complete, I closed gparted. I wanted to reboot into windows to be sure I didn't screw anything up before I attempted to go on.

Now I can't boot into windows which is on my c drive that I didn't touch. I'm getting a boot loop. A blue screen that occupies the top 1/3 of the screen will show for about a second and goes away to fast before I can read it before continuing into a loop. Can't boot into safe mode either.

I tried a windows 7 recovery cd also but it doesn't see the c drive.

As you can tell, I'm a noob at this so please have patience with me. I just wanted Zorin really bad.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Wolfman

Tue Jun 26, 2012 3:52:15 pm

Hi,

sounds like you wiped the boot manager completely!!.

Try this disk which you must download and create from an ISO file:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1895

You can try booting the Zorin live CD and then open a terminal and type:

sudo update-grub

The above command will repair the GRUB bootloader assuming that a version of Linux is available!!.

You can repair the bootloader with the "fixmbr" command from the Windows recovery disk also!!. (The Boot Repair disk can aslo fix the "MBR")

Are you sure that you still have your Windows partition intact???.

See also:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1658

And:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html

Regards Wolfman

rjley

Tue Jun 26, 2012 4:59:23 pm

Thanks Wolfman,

Will that Boot -Repair software only work if I have some version of Linux installed, cause I never got that far.

Wolfman

Tue Jun 26, 2012 5:35:24 pm

Hi,

boot repair will work because it will only offer you an MBR repair option if only Windows is present!!.

Regards Wolfman

rjley

Tue Jun 26, 2012 5:55:30 pm

Wolfman wrote:Hi,

boot repair will work because it will only offer you an MBR repair option if only Windows is present!!.

Regards Wolfman

I can't get that iso to boot after extracting to disk or flash drive.

Auldyin

Tue Jun 26, 2012 8:33:16 pm

""On my HP, I backed up my recovery drive onto 4 disks, deleted the partition, then created a new one w/Gparted. Then tried creating the new partitions manually (/boot, swap, /, /home)""

OOPs It was root not boot and never at the start of the drive.

Cheers Auldyin

rjley

Tue Jun 26, 2012 10:38:27 pm

Auldyin wrote:""On my HP, I backed up my recovery drive onto 4 disks, deleted the partition, then created a new one w/Gparted. Then tried creating the new partitions manually (/boot, swap, /, /home)""

OOPs It was root not boot and never at the start of the drive.

Cheers Auldyin

Maybe that's where it went wrong for me. I was creating them at the start of the drive. If I have about 74GB space for the install, how much space should I give each of the above. When you say you deleted the partition, then created a new one w/Gparted, you have to create 1st a new primary (what file system) then subsequent logical or extended?

rjley

Tue Jun 26, 2012 11:36:39 pm

boot repair

I can't get that iso to boot after extracting to disk or flash drive.

Wolfman

Wed Jun 27, 2012 6:42:28 am

Hi,

Boot Repair is a mini OS (based on LXDE) so you would create a live CD just like you would a normal OS!!.

Regards Wolfman

rjley

Wed Jun 27, 2012 3:31:09 pm

Wolfman wrote:Hi,

Boot Repair is a mini OS (based on LXDE) so you would create a live CD just like you would a normal OS!!.

Regards Wolfman

That's what I've been trying to do. but when I attempt booting from the cd drive, it doesn't seem to see it. I've been using power iso to burn to disk since I don't have the Win7 tools at the moment.
I feel as though it's not transferring right to the disk. I also read about another installation that has boot repair included, called UbuntuSecureRemix that has boot repair built in. Can't get that to boot for some reason either. NOTE, I CAN boot into the Zorin live cd I made before all the trouble started.

Wolfman

Wed Jun 27, 2012 3:54:17 pm

Hi,

extract it to your download folder and then use a ISO burning software to create a disk, just extracting it won't help, you must create a bootlable disk from the downloaded image!!.

Regards Wolfman

rjley

Wed Jun 27, 2012 4:37:10 pm

Hi Wolfman,

Maybe you can answer this referring to an above post: " then created a new one w/Gparted. Then tried creating the new partitions manually (/boot, swap, /, /home)""

OOPs It was root not boot and never at the start of the drive.

Then I said: Maybe that's where it went wrong for me. I was creating them at the start of the drive. If I have about 74GB space for the install, how much space should I give each of the above. When you say you deleted the partition, then created a new one w/Gparted, you have to create 1st a new primary (what file system) then subsequent logical or extended?

Wolfman

Wed Jun 27, 2012 8:32:10 pm

Hi,

what Auldyin is saying is that he wiped the bootloader which he should not have done!!.

You must not touch the bootloader partition unless you intend to completley wipe Windows!!.

Have you gotten any further with the installation and partitioning??.

Regards Wolfman

Auldyin

Thu Jun 28, 2012 12:26:44 pm

rjley wrote:Big Problem...

On my HP, I backed up my recovery drive onto 4 disks, deleted the partition, then created a new one w/Gparted. Then tried creating the new partitions manually (/boot, swap, /, /home)

I only got as far as the 1st step, tried re sizing the drive to create a 258mb partition (/boot) to be placed at the beginning. It took so long and said it was moving (or re sizing) the rest of the 74gb in the progress bar.

After it was complete, I closed gparted. I wanted to reboot into windows to be sure I didn't screw anything up before I attempted to go on.

Now I can't boot into windows which is on my c drive that I didn't touch. I'm getting a boot loop. A blue screen that occupies the top 1/3 of the screen will show for about a second and goes away to fast before I can read it before continuing into a loop. Can't boot into safe mode either.

I tried a windows 7 recovery cd also but it doesn't see the c drive.

As you can tell, I'm a noob at this so please have patience with me. I just wanted Zorin really bad.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Hi all
I didn't do it, I was trying to point out where rjley seems to have gone wrong. I think another picture of the Hard Drive partitions he has now would be helpful, and I am sure that the !!Mighty Wolfman!! will be able to sort it.

Cheers Auldyin

Wolfman

Fri Jun 29, 2012 9:21:18 am

Hi all,

@Auldyin,

"The Mighty Wolfman" is out of ideas as I don't know where we now stand on this problem, he is basically going to have to start from scratch!!.

@OP: Please post an update for us so we know the state of things!!

Regards Wolfman

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