Size of available shrink space in MB = 0

[Maya]

the best way is before you install anything on a computer to have all your
patitions ready,
then install the OS's you want. This was the traditional way..

but since in reality people dont always know before hand what they are going
to do,
programs have come out that try to modify the partitions on a disk..

of course when doing this there is always a small risk something may go
wrong.
You understand this of course....

If you are asking if there is a difference in using GPART before you install
the Linux,
or use the built in shrinker of linux while you are installing, NO there is
no difference since
its basically the SAME PROGRAM! lol gparted is the opensource program that
all these linux uses..

see my other post about the ubuntu installer that lets you use linux without
paritioning..

it may interest you...

I have defragmented again and the Vista partitioner program still says
I have 0MB of available shrink space.

The only concern I have with moving on to the liveCD and doing an
installation now and partition the HD using gparted during
installation is that I'm worried there may be stuff on my C: drive in
parts that will be "freed". (I mean, there must be a reason why Vista
is saying that there is no free space - I think from what you have
said before, that the defrag didn't move all the data nicely in front
of the drive). So if I partition leaving everything the way that it is
right now, will I have data wiped out from the C: drive?

 

[John Smith]

another alternative method to try linux's out is using virtual machines...

its a virtual machine running inside windows...

a good free one is called vmware SERVER (free) www.vmware.com

look for the server edition.. that way you can have many different OS's
working as virtual machines...

the setback? they perform slower than if they were installed on a parittion
and 3d effects like the cube dont work.. other than that.. its a great tool
to use

 

[Maya]

another alternative method to try linux's out is using virtual machines...

its a virtual machine running inside windows...

a good free one is called vmware SERVER (free)www.vmware.com

look for the server edition.. that way you can have many different OS's
working as virtual machines...

the setback? they perform slower than if they were installed on a parittion
and 3d effects like the cube dont work.. other than that.. its a great tool
to use

I have considered working through the VM earlier before taking a look
at linux. However, having some experience working with linux here and
there (and looking at the live CD) I would really like to permanently
install.

Thanks for the tip though

 

[John Smith]

The way these shrinking programs like gparted works, is that THEY MOVE the
data out of the way,
they dont erase it!

So if you want to free say the last 30 gb of your drive, whatever is in
there, gets moved to the other part of your drive FIRST then the space is
created..

it doenst just go and eats the space and everything in that area! LOL that
would be a total disaster!

 

[the wharf rat]

in this situation since the Vista partitioner seems to not give me any
space to shrink, for some reason.

Boo on the vista partitioner! Linux! Linux! Linux!

Really though, these kind of low level system tasks are where
linux shines, fire up knoppix or whatever and see what it says.

Aside: Remember Larry Wall makefiles? "Congratulations. You're not
running Eunice" ? Lol. Maybe gparted should make snide remarks about
vista, haha

 

[Maya]

The way these shrinking programs like gparted works, is that THEY MOVE the
data out of the way,
they dont erase it!

So if you want to free say the last 30 gb of your drive, whatever is in
there, gets moved to the other part of your drive FIRST then thespaceis
created..

it doenst just go and eats thespaceand everything in that area! LOL that
would be a total disaster!

Great! lol - that WOULD be a total disaster.

I'll get started then - thanks a lot for all of your help and useful
info!

 

[NoStop]

Vista does run an automatic defrag whenever you set it to. However, I
have deleted many files in the past week to free up more space so I
need to defrag once more.

I think I most likely will just use the Fedora install shrink routine
and partitioning. However, I'm still confused as to why Vista's disk
manager tells me that there is 0MB space to shrink (where I have
54GB's of free space).

Sorry, can't help you with Vista's shortcomings. From everything I've read,
Vista is a piece of shit. (the fanboz around here will never admit it, but
it is common knowledge in the computer world).

Cheers.


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