<br><br>On Wednesday, February 8, 2012, <a href="mailto:mike@trausch.us">mike@trausch.us</a> <<a href="mailto:mike@trausch.us">mike@trausch.us</a>> wrote:<br>> On 02/08/2012 07:13 PM, James Sumners wrote:<br>>> Before resizing an NTFS partition, especially with use at your own risk<br>
>> tools, you should do two things first: run a complete chkdsk on the<br>>> volume and defragment the drive. Failure to do either of those things<br>>> could result in the loss of vital system files/areas of the disk. If<br>
>> this has happened, the least you can try is a repair using the Windows<br>>> install disk.<br>><br>> Yes, defragmenting is a good step, but only if it is necessary. Often<br>> it isn't; it really depends on what the last actually used block in the<br>
> filesystem is. 99% of the time, at least IME, it is no further than 60%<br>> in and I rarely cut more than 40% from an NTFS partition. After all,<br>> it's not like I need 11 GB for a minimum installation of (any!)<br>
> Linux-based system.<br>><br>> Of course, if the NTFS partition is (or was) full, that's a totally<br>> different story. But I haven't encountered that sort of a situation in<br>> a little while now, with drive sizes being what they are today and all.<br>
<br>It's entirely probable that the disk never been defragmented even once. Thus, bits of files can be scattered all over the place no matter how full the disk was. <br><br>>> The best solution would be to mount the partition with the NTFS driver,<br>
>> copy off all the important data, and install Windows _to its own<br>>> physical disk_.<br>><br>> While that is a nice thing to be able to do, it's often not practical.<br>><br>> I actually rather like running it in a VM, but that is also often not<br>
> practical; most people's Windows licenses won't allow them to reinstall<br>> it inside of a VM, because OEM licenses are bound to the hardware (that<br>> is, "legally" speaking).<br><br>I don't really care if it isn't practical. Dual booting is something I do not reccomend _at all_. But if you insist on it, then pony up and get a $40 320GB drive for the second OS. Hell, even a USB thumb drive could be used. <br>
<br>My actual reccomendation in a case, as I think this is, where someone just wants to dabble with Linux to start learning is to use a VM hosted by their primary OS. VirtualBox is great, and you can install as many distros as you have time and disk space for. Just switch to full screen when you're using the VM so that you're not distracted by the host OS. <br>
<br>> --- Mike<br>><br>> --<br>> A man who reasons deliberately, manages it better after studying Logic<br>> than he could before, if he is sincere about it and has common sense.<br>> --- Carveth Read, “Logic”<br>
><br>><br><br>-- <br>James Sumners<br><a href="http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/">http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/</a><br><br>"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."<br>
<br>Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)<br>CH:D 59<br>