Too many partitions, advice?

Krieg

So I bought a new laptop and planned to put 2 OS on it. Windows XP and ubuntu. The laptop came with window 7 home premium, so in total 3 OS.

I partitioned 20 gb for ubuntu and that installed fine
I partitioned 30gb for windows XP but installation wouldnt work due to an error message telling me I had too many partitions and that installation would not go ahead.

Here are my partitions -




So, is it ok to delete the 15gb recovery partition or the 100mb safety restore without doing damage? I have made a recovery cd but id prefer not to do something thats likely to do damage



And just in case someone asks -
I installed ubuntu out of curosity and id like to keep it.
I want XP specifically run to some games and programs that vista/7 dont like.

Krusader

You can only have 4 primary partitions but you can have (i think) 16 logical partitions inside a primary partition. So you may have to make a logical partition in 1 of your primary partitions.

I wouldn't recommend deleting any of your recovery partitions or MBR :eek:

edit: I recommend using Easeus to partition your primary drives into logical drives, it's very easy to use.

U_Fig

you can install ubuntu on an extended partition i've done this previously however windows must be instilled on a primary partition...why do you want 3 OS...if you need to use multiple os why not emulate using Vmware or if you don't want to pay use Virtualbox that's free in windows 7 and install the 2 virtual OSs...and run them using Virtual box it''s just like using the full os except it's runnign inside windows..although make sure your specs are good enough otherwise it won't run properly

also it is ok to delete these but you're screwed if you have to do a system restore unless you back up externally....what i would do is if you do not want the above option..as it seems that the recovery partition is not a primary partition since you have 4 already..
1) Backup your files in the currently installed windows partition
2) Download the ubuntu disk and burn it to cd or usb
3) Boot up into ubuntu live mode then use Gparted on the Ubuntu live disc..
4) Edit the existing disk with windows 7 on it making it smaller to whatever you need and delete the 17.26gb partition and the 2.74gb partition
5) Create a Primary Partition with whatever space you require for windows xp and format it to NTFS..then with whatever space left for ubuntu create a logical partition/extended partition..in that extend partition create 2 partitions.. one of about 512mb and format it linux swap...then the other create whatever space you require for ubuntu and format that ext3 or ext4 if that's available
6) exit out of ubuntu and boot up your windows xp disk...
7) install xp onto the empty NTFS partition (Note!! doing this will overwrite the MBR of windows 7 meaning that you can now only boot into XP until after ubuntu is installed
8) when installing ubuntu use the manual option and install it onto the ext3/4 partition..the GRUB boot loader will detect Windows 7 and Windows xp and give you the option to boot into either of the 3..and you get to keep the recovery and the system reserved..

there's also a third option of installing ubuntu using WUBI (Windows Based Unix Installer) this will install ubuntu as if it were a program inside windows allowing you to remove it at any time but you still boot up like it's installed the above way..it usess some of the harddrive space of your windows partition

if you need any more info or run into problems PM me and i'll see if i can help

Sean Healy

I only use Ubuntu so I'm not totally certain about this but I believe partitions/ operating systems can be removed/ reduced in Windows' control panel under administrative tools and then in "computer management."