What partition sizes for dual-boot with Vista?

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nzhelga
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Joined: Mon 19 Nov 2012, 08:00

What partition sizes for dual-boot with Vista?

#1 Post by nzhelga »

Hi every one,
I am very new to this, but I love what I have seen of puppy precise.
I want to install it to the hard drive with my windows vista basic,
as a second OS, dual boot
i need to partition my drive, but I don't know what sizes to use.
and what formats
I have about 40 gig spare,
Please help or point me in the right direction.
Thanks

mini-jaguar
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#2 Post by mini-jaguar »

You could try giving 19 gigs more to the windows and 19 for the puppy, and perhaps make a 2 gig swap partition.

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ally
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Location: lincoln, uk
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#3 Post by ally »

puppy needs very little space for itself and will happily read the windows folders

puppy can be installed alongside windows on the same partition as a frugal install which is the recommended format anyway

if you want to partition separately then I would just have a small (few gigs) partition for puppy and a couple of gigs swap file if you have minimal memory

:)

nzhelga
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Joined: Mon 19 Nov 2012, 08:00

#4 Post by nzhelga »

Sorry I did not tell you that Windows is already on there, I want to shrink it and run puppy in the other partition/s. I have installed wary on my old computor, on the HD and want to do the same on my laptop with precise.
thanks

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ally
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#5 Post by ally »

shrinking your windows partition may make it fail hence the suggestion of a frugal install

grub4dos it afterwards and make a savefile of your desired size, no need to attack the partitions

if you do want to go down that route (and it's ok if you do!) you won't need a large partition for puppy, I have a desktop pc with xp installed in a 10gb partition (needed to run chairgun) and puppy lives on a 3gb partition, the rest of the drive is a 'data' partition

if I was you I would try the frugal install on the windows partition, see how you get on

no way is the right way nor the wrong way, I know from experience many moons ago shrinking a windows partition to get the blue screen of death, hence the warning....

:)

nzhelga
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Joined: Mon 19 Nov 2012, 08:00

#6 Post by nzhelga »

Thanks so much for you help,
I will try the frugal one,
my HD is only in one,
Is it all right to do a partition, on the unused part for document,
I want to move the docs away from the system & program files.
thanks

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ally
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#7 Post by ally »

yes you can, just be aware windows may not work after

:)

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8-bit
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#8 Post by 8-bit »

As an alternative method that does not effect the hard drive and the windows partition, you might try making a bootable flash stick. There are instructions on the forum for doing so as well as in the installation section of Puppy.
Of course, your laptop would have to be capable of booting from a flash drive.
On a Toshiba laptop I have, I had to change the boot order in the BIOS to boot the flash drive first.

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Burn_IT
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#9 Post by Burn_IT »

I have several Windows versions on separate partitions, but Puppy Frugal lives with my data.
That way if I do have to replace any of my machine, I always have a reliable way of accessing my data, even if it needs to be restored from back up onto a different machine. (No faffing around with drivers etc. it just works).
Also my emergency tools USB drive boots into Puppy and can run my clean XP in a Virtual machine should I need to recover clients PCs.
"Just think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush" - T Pratchett

nzhelga
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#10 Post by nzhelga »

thanks for all you help, I have been running puppy of my memory stick but would like it more permanent on my laptop, I have now partitioned my drive, (will start windows to see if it still works) I have backed up all my data just in case. Then I will install the puppy on my new partition.
(Frugal) . I find it all very exciting and challenging, as I am not much of a geek grandma, but would like to learn more.

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