1 Topic by mrk1986 (edited by mrk1986 2010-10-03 17:49:42)

  • mrk1986
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Topic: Shrink ext4 to install winXP

Hi Guys,

I have a machine running Kubuntu which has the entire hard disk of the machine allocated and formatted as ext4.

What I want to do is shrink the ext4 partition so there is some free space on the drive and install Windows XP in a dual boot configuration (on a separate partition obviously).

I have some questions:

    * Is it possible to do this on a machine that has only 1 hard disk?
    * Can ext4 partitions be resized?
    * If it IS possible, is there a way to stop the win XP installer clobbering my MBR (which in turn will take away the grub boot menu)?

Open to any suggestions!

thanks!

EDIT: I am really hoping to avoid the "blow everything away and start from scratch" thing if possible.

2 Reply by class413

  • class413
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Re: Shrink ext4 to install winXP

Welcome mrk1986.

I did transfer your post to a new topic, as your questions aren't reported exactly to the subject of that topic.

In brief, it is possible to resize ext4, as we can see to the feature table, in the GParted main page:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/features.php

You can install Kubuntu and XP in the same hard drive.
However, the usual way is to begin from XP, shrink the XP partition and then install the new system in the unallocated space. It seems that this manner it is easier to not "break" XP. Nevertheless, it is possible to go the inverse way. There are guides in the web (you can search with google, for dual boot XP Linux, Linux installed first).

The windows systems don't like very much other systems, by default. It is usual that the xp installation will change the MBR. However, it is possible to re-install grub, or to keep a backup of the boot code. There is an example using the dd command.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dd_%28Unix%29
( look for "To create an image of only the boot code of the master boot record (without the partition table):" )

In any case, manipulating partitions is always potentially dangerous, even for professionals, so it is always recommended to keep backup of any important content (professionals keep even double backup copies).

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***