Partitioning before Install

Hi,

I'm going to make a clean install of my Windows 7 including a Linux dual boot.
I want to do a pre partitioning and have some Questions about that.

1) Does Windows 7 accept pre partitioned Harddrives?
Last time I tried this, the result was that I got a Second 100 MB Boot partition of Windows 7.
This Time I want to do this (got only one hard drive in my Notebook):

Code:

[W 7 boot (100MB)] [W 7 System (60GB)] [Linux (40GB)] {[Win Data] [Linux Data] [Swap]}.

Is this possible in a prepartitioning step with for example PartedMagic/Gparted live without having Windows 7
messing that up with trying create an additional 100 MB boot partition.

2) What is with the partion Type "dynamic"?
I was thinking, that a Hard drive can only contain 4 primary partitions.
If I want more, I have to create instead of one of them a extended partition, which can contain further logical partitions.
On my actual windows 7 (only) sytem I see five! partitions on one hard drive without a extended one.
All of the them with type called "Dynamic".
During my Image BackUp experiments I tried some live CDs to create image backUps.
My old Arconis True Image can't back up, because it says:

E000101F: Acronis Tru Image Workstation has detected unsupported hard disk drives. Acronis True Image Workstation does not support Windows Dynamic Disks, EZ-Drives, etc.

Also tried it with a new version. But the new one does not find my Hard drive: Toshiba MK2529GSG.

What is up with this “dynamic” Partitions?
Can I pre create them?

Do you have two Hd Drives?
One for Windows 7 & one Linux.

theog said:

Do you have two Hd Drives?
One for Windows 7 & one Linux.

As mentioned in my Post: No
It is a Notebook

Bare Foot Kid said:

Hello mate.
You want to stay away from a Dynamic disk as it is known to cause Windows to become unbootable after a while and it is a very difficult situation to resolve, keep all a Basic disk.

Oh, I didn't know that. I run my Windows 7 System since about 18 month without any boot problems ...

Bare Foot Kid said:

After you have copied out or made back-ups of the data you need to save to external media, it would be best to do a complete wipe clean all of the entire HDD, this will do 2 things, over-write the old Dynamic disk configuration data and remove the Grub loader, both can cause serious Windows installation errors.

Im intended to make a clean install for my dual boot.
At the moment I got only Windows 7. So no grub.
Data is BackUped.
Pre partitioning is exactly what I now want to do.

Bare Foot Kid said:

Have a look at Step One of this tutorial linked below for that process and then Step Two to see how best to create partitions in any manner you like using Windows without the use of any 3rd party software.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

Looks complicated ... but I will take a look at that.
What is the advantage of It beyond the 3rd Party tools?


Goal is to kill remove everything an all from the HD.
Then Partitioning it.
Then Install W7 and Linux in dual boot.

As mentioned in my Post: No
It is a Notebook

Dual Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu

gregrocker said:

If you want to start fresh, then I'd use free PW CD to prepartition as desired keeping in mind that Win7 needs a Primary partition to boot.

Yes, my gool is a real full and absolut clean new Install.

gregrocker said:

If you want to start fresh, then I'd use free PW CD to prepartition as desired keeping in mind that Win7 needs a Primary partition to boot.

You could also follow these steps to Dual Boot Win7 with Linux, making your partitions as you go, then add the data partitions later in Disk mgmt: Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu in Perfect Harmony

A loot to read just for a simple dualboot clean Install.

Bare Foot Kid said:

though if it boots good now I don't see the necessity before the clean install you are planning.

The actuall Installation does not full fill my reuqirements,
as there is no Dualboot as I want.
Also the Partitions Space is not like I want, it would be a maraton of resizing.
So it is much more easy to format the whole Harddisk.

Bare Foot Kid said:

If you do want to convert back to Basic before the new install have a look at this post for information though if it boots good now I don't see the necessity before the clean install you are planning.

I would strongly suggest you convert back to a Basic disk before you start the new install.

As I think creating the partions (wanted like shown in first post) using the guide you posted,
using the diskpart tool will work creating basic partitins.

There is a little question ...
Why this tool is not included in the standard Installation DVD

Bare Foot Kid said:

There's a lot of useful information contained in these tutorials linked below, Method One of this first one and the whole process in the second.

Partition / Extended : Logical Drives

System Reserved : Multi Boot from Logical Partitions

Thanks, I'll also read this.

theog said:

As mentioned in my Post: No
It is a Notebook

Dual Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu

I want to PRE partition all and than Install.

You said you want to prepartition for Dual Boot clean install of Win7 and Ubuntu, so we provide you the bare basic information to do those tasks and you complain that it is a lot to read? Hello?

If you use Diskpart Clean All on the Disk first then it won't require converting to Basic.

gregrocker said:

You said you want to prepartition for Dual Boot clean install of Win7 and Ubuntu, so we provide you the bare basic information to do those tasks and you complain that it is a lot to read? Hello?

Not complaining about you.
Complaining about the masses to account for
Thought I would be not that much.