making room for linux

[acollins at icsmail.net]

Hi Chuck.  You should look at the drive partitions, and figure out which
of them are used for the Windows os, and which are user data space. 
Then if necessary, you can use partition magic or some other partition
management software to split one of the partitions if necessary.  You
should defragment the partition before you use partition magic or any
other partition management software that can handle ntfs partitions. 
After you've freed up the disk space you require, you can install the
linux distro of your choice on it, and claim whatever free data space or
partition you want for your home partition.  You will of course need to
inform your favorite Linux boot loader of how to boot your windows
partition afterwards.  Hope this helps.

Gene
>My new laptop came with Windows 7 installed on it, and I want to create
>space on the HD to install Linux.  I was expecting Windows to be in
>a single partition, but I find it is spread over three partitions,
>occupying the entire 500 GB disk.
>
>Any tips about how to handle this twist would be appreciated.  I might
>never use windows, but others might, if I can preserve it.
>
>--
>Chuck in Hudson.
>Web address: www.hallenbeck.ftml.net, Messenger JID: chuckh1 at jabber.org
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