[lug] laptop partioning, boot loaders

[Ken Kinder]

On 6/10/06, D. Stimits <stimits at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> (Snip) But...this is a dell, and it has some sort of VFAT support partition as
> the first partition. (Snip)

For what it's worth, Partition Magic did not handle the IBM Thinkpad
variation of a recovery partition well AT ALL. In the IBM BIOS, there
are three options for what to do with the recovery partition: make
normal, "hide", and "protect". I had the hide option selected.

Partition Magic, upon resizing the Windows partition (NTFS), got it
wrong. I'm not clear on the exact issue, but I recall it was something
on the order of the partition not "starting" where it should -- like
it should start on an even block number, and it did not.

Linux was OK with it, although fdisk gave warnings. Windows simply
wouldn't boot. Best of all, Partition Magic crashed when you showed it
the partition table it created. It was rough.

You might see if your BIOS has similar options. Go with perhaps making
the partition visible, because then maybe Partition Magic would have
taken it into account and done its job correctly. But that's
speculation on my part, and who knows if Dells work like IBMs. You
might see if Dell will send you real, actual recovery CDs -- IBM will,
but if your warranty is expired, it's like $60.