On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 6:14 AM, Robbie Smith <zoqaeski@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi everyone
TL;DR: I've just bought a new HP Pavilion g6-2103ax, and I'm having difficulties trying to figure out how I can dual-boot it with Windows 7 (which was preinstalled).
Windows *still* defaults to using MBR partitions, and even though the system is UEFI, HP have used some trickery somewhere to make it boot from BIOS. To make matters worse, the disk table already has four partitions:
SYSTEM: 199 MB NTFS Windows C drive: ~ 450 GB NTFS HP Recovery partition: 18.5 GB NTFS HP_TOOLS: 99 MB FAT32
The SYSTEM partition seems to contain the Windows bootloader, or something along those lines. The HP Recovery partition contains the software necessary to do a factory reset, and HP_TOOLS contains some UEFI applications (some system diagnostic things). C drive is Windows.
What I was thinking of doing was shrinking C drive, and deleting the recovery partition to make space for Arch. But on my first attempt, parted bricked the table, and whilst I was able to recover it, Windows refused to boot. I obtained recovery disks to restore it, but they are completely non-interactive so cannot be used to rescue Windows, only reset to factory initial state.
Due to the arrangement of the partitions, I don't think creating an Extended partition will work (they need to be the last one in the table, don't they?), and while I've read GRUB2 can use /boot in LVM, I'm not sure whether this will work. Also, I've never used GRUB2 before, and its configs look formidable compared to Syslinux. Ideally I'd switch to GPT, but Windows needs to be booted in UEFI mode for this, but I have no idea how to enable this as there's neither a switch in the BIOS settings, nor settings in Windows.
Can anyone advise me on how I could overcome these issues? Has anyone had any experience with new HP g6 models?
On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 6:14 AM, Robbie Smith <zoqaeski@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi everyone
TL;DR: I've just bought a new HP Pavilion g6-2103ax, and I'm having difficulties trying to figure out how I can dual-boot it with Windows 7 (which was preinstalled).
Windows *still* defaults to using MBR partitions, and even though the system is UEFI, HP have used some trickery somewhere to make it boot from BIOS. To make matters worse, the disk table already has four partitions:
SYSTEM: 199 MB NTFS Windows C drive: ~ 450 GB NTFS HP Recovery partition: 18.5 GB NTFS HP_TOOLS: 99 MB FAT32
The SYSTEM partition seems to contain the Windows bootloader, or something along those lines. The HP Recovery partition contains the software necessary to do a factory reset, and HP_TOOLS contains some UEFI applications (some system diagnostic things). C drive is Windows.
What I was thinking of doing was shrinking C drive, and deleting the recovery partition to make space for Arch. But on my first attempt, parted bricked the table, and whilst I was able to recover it, Windows refused to boot. I obtained recovery disks to restore it, but they are completely non-interactive so cannot be used to rescue Windows, only reset to factory initial state.
Due to the arrangement of the partitions, I don't think creating an Extended partition will work (they need to be the last one in the table, don't they?), and while I've read GRUB2 can use /boot in LVM, I'm not sure whether this will work. Also, I've never used GRUB2 before, and its configs look formidable compared to Syslinux. Ideally I'd switch to GPT, but Windows needs to be booted in UEFI mode for this, but I have no idea how to enable this as there's neither a switch in the BIOS settings, nor settings in Windows.
Can anyone advise me on how I could overcome these issues? Has anyone had any experience with new HP g6 models?
Hi Robbie I will try to give you some advice based on my own experience with my HP laptop (Pavilion dv7-4287cl) I bought roughly one year and half ago. Short answer: nuke Windows, GPT your disk -be aware that it's likely to be a 4kb/sector hd so take that in mind when partitioning-, install Arch, what else? Oh yeah: never again buy any HP related product. But I want to keep Windoze! answer: the four partitions layout is a shitty move from HP/Microsoft, they enforce you to use only Windows because as you already discovered the "rescue DVD" (rescue, yeah, they're shameless) restores exactly that layout: it wipes your disk and recreate the same structure; worst: if you read the HP warranty they say that it will be void if you modify in any way the original layout of your hard drive, so in the case -we hope not of course- you need to send your computer to their tech support staff be sure to restore your HD to factory defaults before send it or you'll be out of luck - yeah, they sucks. So if you can't resize the actual Windows C: partition to make space for Arch then you're out of luck but if you can then remember to backup your MBR and partition table just in case: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB2#MBR_aka_msdos_partitioning_specif..., I think your best bet here will be GRUB Legacy (Syslinux may do the job too but since I never really used it besides some playing I don't know if it will work or not, check the wiki). Another thing you may try -if you *really* need a physical install of W7- is downloading a W7 that matchs your installed W7 version and try to use your license key on it - I'm pretty sure it will likely don't work since the good people at Micro$oft makes sure the licenses you already paid from one source don't work on any other side (good people!) but who knows... One last thing: if you choose to go with the Arch Linux only install you are legally backed to ask for a full money refund for what you paid for the Windows license -at least in my country-, do check at the store where you bought your machine for the refund.