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Date:      Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:48:37 -0300
From:      Alejandro Pulver <alejandro@varnet.biz>
To:        Pietro Cerutti <pietro.cerutti@gmail.com>
Cc:        FreeBSD <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: how to install Windows on an existing partition?
Message-ID:  <20050310174837.2a2d05fb@ale.varnet.bsd>
In-Reply-To: <e572718c05031011313d56344a@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <e572718c050310090147204d8e@mail.gmail.com> <20050310160455.013df4b0@ale.varnet.bsd> <e572718c050310111638b6eac8@mail.gmail.com> <e572718c05031011313d56344a@mail.gmail.com>

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On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 19:31:12 +0000
Pietro Cerutti <pietro.cerutti@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 16:04:55 -0300, Alejandro Pulver
> <alejandro@varnet.biz> wrote:
> >
> > Hello,
> 
> Hi there, thank you for your reply.
> 
> >
> > Windows (and also a msdos filesystem, I think) needs a whole slice
> > (thoose you edit with 'fdisk', called "partition" by Windows) to
> > install(it does not understand a BSD slice with labels). You can
> > also just leave some free space in the disk (the BSD slice must not
> > cover the whole disk) and then Windows should create another
> > partition (slice) to install itself.
> >
> 
> This was my fear....
> 
> >
> > I think your partition layout is as follows (sizes in Mbytes):
> >
> > | a 150 | b 1500 | d 5120 | g 9880 | e 20480 | f 20101 | END 0 |
> >    0       150      1650     6770     16650     37130     57231
> 
> Right!
> 
> >
> > So you will have to delete 'g', and move all the partitions before
> > near to 'd'. Or in the other direction. Change the slice size
> > ('fdisk').
> 
> I can delete 'g' withoud problems, but then:
> - how do I move the partitions?
> - how do I resize the slice (which takes the whole disk) ?
> 
> > If something of this looks unclear mail me.
> 
> Sure!
> 
> > Best Regards,
> 
> Cheers.
> 
> > Ale
> >
> > P.S.: how did you do to resize the partition 'd' to put 'g' after it
> > (just changing the BSD labels)?
> >
> I deleted 'd', created a smaller 'd', and then created 'g'.
> 
> 
> --
> Pietro "Piter" Cerutti
> <pietro.cerutti@gmail.com>
> <piter@beansidhe.ch>
> 
> Beansidhe - SwiSS Death / Thrash Metal
> <www.beansidhe.ch>
> 
> Windows: "Where do you want to go today?"
> Linux: "Where do you want to go tomorrow?"
> FreeBSD: "Are you guys coming or what?"
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Hello,

If you want to use the free space of 'g' you will have to delete it and
collapse all the partitions near 'd'. But is *dangerous*, and in fact
there are *no* tools (I searched and it is often said) to resize
filesystems (even if you resize the partition, the filesystem thinks
the space is still assigned to it, I think). The only think I believe is
possible (with raw tools: 'dd') is moving partitions, but if you
are moving less space than the size of the partition itself, it is only
possible to do it backwards, and the copied bytes will be overritten
(after copied) so if the process is interrupted you will lose all the
data (half in the destination, the rest in the original place, and one
immediatly following the other).

I found a (possible) better way to do this:

1) Revert the changes with the partitions 'd' and 'g' (back-up, delete,
create only 'd', restore).

2) Save the data in 'f' ('/home') to somewhere (like '/usr').

2) Delete 'f' ('/home') and create it with less space (like 10 GB, or
less, if you do not need much space there).

3) Then the BSD label entry 'c' should have less size.

4) Use 'fdisk' to resize the slice. It should be equal to the size of
partition 'c' (that is not a real partition, but the size sum of all
of them). Then the slice must not cover the entire disk, and you will
be able to create a 'msdosfs' slice after it (in the unallocated space).

I never tried this and I do not know if it is possible, so I *recommend*
you to back up your data.

Good Luck!

Best Regards,
Ale



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