Install on a Lenovo G570 laptop without losing hidden files?

[zxr250cc]

I have used XP and Linux as dual boot systems for a long time and one of the things that happened with the installs on my various Think Pad laptops was that the hidden recovery section would get lost in the install each time. I had a set of disks so I didn't mind it so much. I am using a Lenovo G570 with i3 cpu, Intel video chip set, 8 GB RAM and 500 GB hard disk. I have used LIVE disks with it and all of the versions I have tried have worked fine with exception of Mandriva 2011 (no web)and ROSA 2012 (no web) disks.

I am considering installing Mageia but will not do so if I lose the hidden recovery areas of the hard disk. I am using Windows 7 Home Premium edition for the software at this time. I would probably use grub for the boot loader.

Ideas?

gcd

[janpihlgren]

Hi
I'm using Lenovo ThinkPad W701, 2 hd, 320GB(default) and 500GB, 8GB RAM.
I installde Mageia as dualboot with Windows.
First I change the size of Windows to 70 GB.
Then I installed Mandriva (2010-2 PWP) which detected Windows and the hidden partitions (2, Win recover and Lenovo util)
I choose to use the remainig space for Mandriva) (did some partition )
After that I installed Mageia 1 (last autum) and Mageia 2 (a few weeks ago)
As I think there will work to install Mageia 2 directly as well.
When you begin installation you will get the possibility to choose how you whish to have your partitions and ther you can see that one part of the disk will be occupied of thewindows partition.
You still have the possibility to suspend the installation without destroying anything.

[Ken-Bergen]

This has been documented many times.
Some PC builders create 4 primary partitions and the only way to create a fifth for Linux is to delete one of them so that an extended partition can be created.
The work around has also been documented but is not for the faint of heart.

[zxr250cc]

Hi,

I am certainly familiar with creating partitions with Linux in desktop and laptop computers, since 1998 with Red Hat 5.0. The hidden partitions are what I have been losing in the past without minding since I had recovery disks. Now they only have recovery partitions. I don't keep anything in the drive that I need to save and always backup to external drive for stuff I want to keep. What I have been losing has been the recovery partition and wonder if having the boot record not be in the MBR makes it keep the recovery section? I usually make four primary partitions so one for Linux and the other three for Windows plus hidden partitions will work fine. I am not really needing Linux in this laptop since it is not my favorite anyway. (I am a Think Pad fan...) I usually split the drive in half with Windows and Linux sharing equal size partitions.

If there is a method that retains the hidden partitions I would be ready to try it. If it is certain, I am in. If doubtful, I will pass...

Cheers,

gcd

[doktor5000]

Well, if you are familar with creating partitions, what keeps you from backing up the MBR and partition table, f.ex. via dd?
This is also what Mageia/Mandriva does (at least for MBR) but i wouldn't bet a dime on it and do it myself manually, quite easy.

[zxr250cc]

Well the problem is this: the hard drive already has three partitions on it. I usually use primary partitions and the limit is four for those. I recently tried to do an install with extended partitions and the boot loader would not let itself be installed. I need 3 for Lenovo/Windows partitions, boot, swap, root and if I choose a separate home partition. What does backing up the mbr have to do with this issue?

Please explain...

gcd

[Ken-Bergen]

What does backing up the mbr have to do with this issue?

Please explain...

gcd

If I understand correctly the recovery partition is still there but you have no menu entry for it. Correct so far?

By backing up and restoring the origanal MBR as the Doktor suggested you'd have your origanal Windows boot menu back and could run a recovery if needed.

[zxr250cc]

Hi,

I have not done the install as I am not sure I can do it with the way the hard drive is allocated on the laptop. It is presently a recovery section, the main part and some other smaller section that I am not sure as to what it is. It has three partitions at present. As I would want to add root, boot and swap at least I am not sure how to do an install and have the recovery section maintained.

As I mentioned previously, I tried to install on one of my other laptops into an extended partition and the boot loader refused to be installed that way. That was on a laptop with one main partition only with Mageia 2 trying to force me to accept an extended partition set up. It kept trying to do that each time I tried to do a manual partition and I finally used a SUSE disk to make the partitions and then installed into existing partitions. (This is off topic a bit.)

Anyway, at present it is Windows 7 only on the laptop. I am wondering if I should try this or let it go. I have two other laptops with XP/Mageia at this time.

Thanks

gcd

[Ken-Bergen]

It's up to you.
I'm not sure what you mean by

As I mentioned previously, I tried to install on one of my other laptops into an extended partition and the boot loader refused to be installed that way.

I don't have Windows installed on any of my systems but they all have one primary partition and all other partitions are on an extended partition. In fact on one system the primary partition is for data and the operating system is all on the extended partition.

[janpihlgren]

Hi,
I have not done the install as I am not sure I can do it with the way the hard drive is allocated on the laptop. It is presently a recovery section, the main part and some other smaller section that I am not sure as to what it is. It has three partitions at present. As I would want to add root, boot and swap at least I am not sure how to do an install and have the recovery section maintained.
gcd

As I said above, begin to shrink the windowspartition.
Don't do anything with the free space.
Install Mageia 2. You will be asked for how to use the free space and you will be given the possibility to set up
the partitions you wish without touch the windowspartitions.
Afterwords you will discover that you will have tree windowspartitions,
SYSTEM_DRV (1.1GB), Windows7_OS(73GB) and (in my case) Lenovo_Recovery(9.7GB).
For Mageia the rest will be set up as you choose, in my case I set up
30 GB for / (root)
12 GB for /usr
4 GB for /var
75 GB for /home
79 GB for /misc
and 3 GB for swap( size choosed by Mageia)

Mageia will then do tha partioning an format tha partitions.
When the installation is finished you have the possibility to se the windowspartitions in Dolfin, the will also be mounted
so you can if you wish use them on your maind.
Mageia will also set up the start window to let you choose between Mageia and windows.

So as my experince there is nothing to be worried about. You will keep both windows and the recovery partionings.

[zxr250cc]

I have never let Linux do an auto allocation of space before as the older way you had to choose all the settings yourself. Are the allocations mentioned the current settings if you let Mageia 2 choose partition settings?

I tried to install Mageia 2 on another laptop with XP on it. It had previously been used with Mandriva PWP 2010.2 and I chose not to use 2011 PWP because, frankly, IT SUCKS with the ROSA additions from the Russians.

I was trying to have windows, boot, swap and root as primary partitions. The Mageia install program on the LIVE CD kept trying to over ride my choice and wanted to create an extended partition instead. I tried that and the install seemed to go well until I tried to install the boot loader (grub) and the program said that the boot loader could not be installed because of some problem about the extended partition (I don't remember the exact wording.) and the boot loader did not install. I tried that twice to see if that was an error or a real problem. Same result both times. So, I used a SUSE 11.4 Live CD to make the primary partitions I wanted for windows, boot, root and swap and then manually selected the partitions when I installed Mageia 2 on the old laptop.

I guess I don't trust the auto allocation and installs. I always have resized the Windows section to have as much space as I wish for Linux and Windows and usually split the drive 50/50 to have space for both. I will think about this some and if I decide to let it install I will back up the settings first. I looked in the Lenovo recovery section and it offers to do a backup and also offers to make disks. I will do both if I try this.

Thanks,

gcd

[doktor5000]

For most windows laptops it's probably best to note down your license key somewhere, then create recovery media, and then just completely empty the drive, as i've never seen any default installation which wasn't filled by useless crap consuming memory and twisting default windows configuration to whatever vendors seemed to think is good. Also mostly drivers are outdated and performance is not optimal.
Then just do a clean windows installation, you can get "real" windows installation media from MSDN f.ex. via official links, and just add drivers, not from laptop vendors but from producers of the hardware, e.g. from Nvidia, Realtek, Intel and so on, and then barely needed software. Then add you linux later on and just let it use the free space, if you don't plan on adding another OS behind the first linux.