Speaking of HP laptops, I own such a fine machine but they used up all four primary partitions for windows, HP's inaccessible restore disk stuff, a boot part and some other partition I can't remember the name of. I would like to set that one up to be a dual boot but I can't be sure what partitions I can safely delete without screwing up the environment. The main windows partition seems to be in /dev/sda1; not sda0. Also, I would like to possibly replace the drive and some how just reload back what windows stuff I have so I don't have to go out and buy a new install disk of Win although that might be the ultimately best way to restore windows on a new drive. I would consider a vertual machine approach but no matter, I need to have linux running on that drive. I do not want to run linux under a windows host. On 10/26/11, Christopher Moore <chris.w1gm at gmail.com> wrote: > Chuck, > You'll probably have ample room on the drive to allocate a swap and > linux partitions. Windows 7 comes with a tool to resize partitions. > You can get the free NVDA screen reader which works quite well with > windows these days. > > Once you've resized your windows partition, you should be able to boot > the talking Arch which can be copied to a USB stick if your laptop > doesn't have a CD drive. You'll also need to think about how to dual > boot the system once linux is installed. Some folks put the grub boot > loader in the MBR. Another approach which would preserve your MBR is to > put grub on the linux partition and add an entry to the windows boot > menu for your linux. This latter approach is what I will be doing with > my HP laptop. > > So, there are several options, and don't rush into anything without > thinking it through. Also, be sure to make backup DVDs of your laptop > so that you don't inadvertently blow away your windows installation > without a backup plan in place. > > LOL > Chris > > On 10/24/2011 4:14 PM, Chuck Hallenbeck wrote: >> Hi Greg, >> >> Many thanks for that outline, I'm sure it will do the trick here. >> >> You are right about my Windows aversion, in fact it's a GUI aversion, >> but I need to keep my options open this time for a number of reasons. >> >> 1. I may be about to receive a gift of a Thinkpad laptop of an as >> yet unknown model, and the initial investment in the Windows software >> is unavoidable. To blow it away without considering its possible uses >> seems unnecessarily hardnowed, assuming the hardware has sufficient disk >> space to support both OS's. >> >> 2. Also, I've been using Verizon DSL for some months now, and my >> available browsers allow me to do most, but not all, of the things I >> would like to do with their internet gateway (modem+router). Verizon no >> longer comes with a CD, one needs to download the modem administrative >> software from Verizon, and Verizon is as hardnose about Windows as I >> am about Linux. One of us needs to blink. >> >> 3. Third, I recently acquired a wireless printer/scanner/fax unit with >> uncertain support in Linux for the scanner section, and Windows supports >> the entire unit just fine. >> >> 4. Finally, it is possible that I might have to time-share access to the >> Thinkpad with my wife, who is a very occasional user with only minimal >> Windows skills and a bad attitude toward computers. There will be no >> new learning going on in our house! >> >> Otherwise, you are absolutely correct, I would blow the sucker away >> without a second thought. >> >> Thanks for that rundown, it's just what I needed. >> >> >> -- >> Chuck in Hudson. >> _______________________________________________ >> Speakup mailing list >> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >
