Eee PC Partitions

[Peter Bogiatzidis]

Hello,

I recently had to replace the hard drive in an Asus Eee PC 900HA netbook,
which originally came with Windows XP Home installed on it.

Since the new drive was larger than the original one, my plan was to
reinstall Windows and then install Ubuntu (not the Netbook version) making
it into a dual boot system. However, after successfully using the restore
disk to install Windows on the new drive, I discovered that I was unable to
install Ubuntu due to the fact that in the Windows restoration process
apparently 4 partitions were created. It appears that is the maximum number
of partitions allowed. Granted, I could delete one or more of them, but I
don't think that would be a safe thing to do. Unfortunately, at the moment,
I don't have the partition information with me to post here.

Has anyone else encountered this? I believe that I just followed whatever
the default settings were on the restoration disk and didn't deliberately
create any of the partitions myself. Does anyone here have any pointers as
to how I can manage to get Ubuntu installed without crippling Windows by
possibly removing a necessary partition?

I should also mention that I used an external CD drive connected via a USB
cable adapter to install Windows from the CD.

Thanks in advance to those who post a reply.

Peter.

[Paul]

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20090331011656581&board_id=20&model=Eee+PC+900HA%2FXP&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

"In 900HA have 4 partitions too :

one is the C:\ drive for the OS (windows XP Home Edition/Linux)
One is the D:\ drive for data
one is Other partition (i don't know what it is for) 39.22 MB
One is PE Fat 32 partition 7.82GB for the restore partition."

You could merge the data in D:, into C:, then remove D:. And
that would give you room for a primary partition for Linux.
Of course, doing so, may not make the restoration software in
the 7.82GB partition very happy. Some restore software, wants
to see the same disk structure as was there originally.

Also, there are instances of OSes being installed in logical
partitions. Once D: is removed, you could make an extended
partition and put more than one logical partition inside. I
don't consider logical partitions to be very flexible, and
never bother with them here. But you can have a ton of logical
ones if you want.

I think I've had at least one Linux LiveCD, upon doing an
install to the hard drive, it put the OS in a logical partition.
I think it's possible for GRUB to boot without an active flag
set, and as a consequence, the OS launched can be in a logical
partition.

I wish I knew what your 39.22MB (EFI???) partition was for.

*******

You can have four primary partitions, or three primaries and one Extended.
Inside the Extended, you can have multiple logical partitions. The Extended
has a partition number which functions as a "flag" that logicals exist.
And the partition information for the logicals, isn't stored in the MBR.
So you can have more than four partitions. Some OSes are picky, and the
boot loader installed in the MBR, insists on the Active boot flag being
present, and consequently the OS partition should be a primary. But
there are other schemes available, that are not dependent on the Active
flag.

+----------+-----------+-----------+----------------------------------------+
|Primary#1 | Primary#2 | Primary#3 | Extended |
+----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------------+
| Logical#1 | Logical#2 | ... Logical #N |
+-----------+-----------+----------------+

HTH,
Paul