dual booting - accessible partition resizers and some other questions

[Willem van der Walt]

> > option is to create a file that fills up the win partition and then
> > afterwards delete it again.
> > Do a df -h on the mounted partition to see more or less how much free
> > space is available and then use a command like:
> > dd if=/dev/zero of=bigfile count=1000M to create a 1 gb file.
> > Then simply rm bigfile.
> > I am not sure how much it would actually help with defragmentation, but I
> > often use it when I want to compress a image of a partition.
> 
> Ok. How does that help though with all the other stuff being on the disk?
When compressing a partition, it is not the files that are compressed one 
by one, but the image of the partition.
The empty space on the partition are also compressed.  When files are 
deleted, the space they occupied are made available for use again, but the 
data itself is not overwritten.
When one create a big file as suggested, all the available space is 
overwritten with zeroes which, when compressed, compress better than the 
wrandom data which might be liing around in the empty space.
 > 
> > By the way, if you have another linux box connected over a local ethernet
> > or so with enough space, you can first image the windows partition into a
> > file on the other box for a backup.
> 
> I have a 320 gb external hard drive so can I backup to this?
> (I only have 13 gb to backup so I have plenty of room.)
Yes.> 
> Also re resizing:
> The guys in one of the linux-coders channels told me to resize after
> defragging and resize in the ubuntu installer.
> Is this ok?
> Or should I use ntfsresize still?
I did not know the Ubuntu installer can do that, but if it can, use that.

> What happens if the resize is a failure do I lose data?
> will windows boot?
That it is better to make a backup of the windows partition before you 
start working with it.
The resize would most likely work, but having a backup will allow you to 
recover if required.

> If it is successful and say resized to 20 gb will windows boot next time?
If you do the resize and install of ubuntu all in one go, everything 
should be ok.

> 
> Also does ubuntu have an accessible installer?
> If so how do I activate it?
I am not sure about that.
Try to get sighted help just for the install process.

> 
> Thanks for all your help I really appreciate it,
> 
> -- 
> Daniel Dalton
> 
> http://members.iinet.net.au/~ddalton/
> d.dalton at iinet.net.au
> 
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> 

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