Solved unallocated disk space wont become logical, need to install linux

[Paronomasia]

hi, im having some trouble installing linux mint in my laptop. i followed some of your guides saying how to create a new partition, but its not working. i already made 100 gb of unallocated space, i click on new simple volume and go through the process, but at the end i get a warning thing for making something dynamic, the other thread said never to click yes, or else all the OS's will stop working, so i wont click that, but after i click no, nothing happens. so im wondering, how can i create a partition for linux? i want to be able to plug my flash drive(4gb) and run linux from there. it already runs a graphical interfase thing but it makes me install linux, so i need to create a partition for the linux part of my laptop to be. can anyone please help?

 

[Bill2]

Post a snip of the disk management window here.

Though it does appear you're trying to create more than the max no. of partitions allowed.

 

[Paronomasia]

 

[AA light]

Hello Paranomasia,

You might already have 3 primary partitions when you are trying to create the fourth primay. If you click yes, the whole hard disk will convert to dynamic yet you are able to convert back to basic drive non-destructively by using partition wizard version 4.2 burn to lowest speed . Boot and select the disk click convert dynamic to basic , ok and apply

additionally , you might convert non OS partition to logical drive.

 

[Paronomasia]

im sorry, i dont quite understand what you mean

 

[Bill2]

Thats a disk defrag window, not the disk management window. Click start button, then type diskmgmt.msc, hir Enter, the window that comes up is to be snipped.

HP has taken on the nasty habit of shipping their machines with 4 primary partitions which makes it difficult to dual boot linux. FYI, the HP tools partition contain some diagnostics and bios tools, the recovery partition contains the factory restore image, the system reserved partition contains files needed to boot windows while the C: drive contains windows itself. Even if C: is logical you're stuck. Depending on their tech savviness, people have managed to get rid of the tools partition or the recovery partition or completely reinstalled windows.

First thing, post that disk management snip and create a set of recovery disks.

 

[Paronomasia]

 

[Bill2]

Let me briefly outline the procedure needed, you can judge for yourself whether you're comfortable with it.

1) Copy off the contents of the HP_Tools partition to an external disk.

2) Delete the HP_Tools partition, leaving 100 mb unallocated space.

3) Now create an extended partition in the 100gb unallocated, create separate logical partitions there for Linux and HP_Tools. Install Linux and copy back the contents of HP_Tools into the new logical partition.

Before this you would need to create a set of recovery disks because its possible changing the disk partitioning structure will break restore. It is also advisable to image the entire hard disk.

As I said, theres a possibility of making mistakes, so if you're not comfortable with all this procedure, the best way would be to just use acronis or ghost or macrium to image all the partitions, create recovery disks, then use the excellent tuts here to clean install windows and activate with the sticker key.

 

[Paronomasia]

is there any other way? what i really want is to have the whole OS ona flash drive so i can access it instead of windows 7

 

[Bill2]

is there any other way? what i really want is to have the whole OS ona flash drive so i can access it instead of windows 7

I'm not an expert in Linux mint but this is one way.

Run Linux Mint 9 from a USB Flash Drive (Windows) | USB Pen Drive Linux

Google for other ways.

 

[Paronomasia]

i cant aces the internet from it for some reason though, it wont show the available connections