Datasheet

Part I ✦ SUSE Linux Basics

If you are creating your own partitioning scheme and do not already have an

operating system on your computer that you want to preserve, skip to the section

“Primary and Extended Partitions.”

Resizing Existing Operating System Partitions

Nowadays, it is quite common to have systems that can boot multiple operating

systems. Such computer systems enable users to take advantage of the power and

applications available in each operating system by selecting between available

operating systems when you boot the system. These are typically referred to as

dual-boot systems because most people install at most two operating systems on a

single machine. However, because more than two operating systems can be installed

on a single disk, the proper name is multiboot, which is the term used in this sec-

tion. The number of operating systems that you can boot and run on a single com-

puter is really limited only by the amount of disk space available on your computer

system.

With SUSE Linux, the most common type of multiboot system is a system that can

boot either SUSE Linux or some version of Microsoft Windows. Windows will be

used as an example throughout the rest of this section, although the same general

concepts are true when setting up multiboot systems that will run SUSE Linux and

any other operating system.

Explaining how to install Windows on an existing SUSE Linux system is not relevant

to a discussion of installing SUSE Linux. However, the reverse is not true. Installing

SUSE Linux on a system that already runs Windows, and on which you want to be

able to continue to run Windows, is a common wish. This is quite easy to do and

involves only resizing your existing Windows partition(s) so that sufficient contigu-

ous space is available for installing SUSE.

If you are running a new installation on a system that already contains an operating

system such as Windows that you want to preserve, and if the disk or Windows parti-

tion in that system has sufficient free space to install SUSE Linux, YaST will propose a

solution based on resizing your existing Windows partition and automatically creat-

ing appropriate swap and root partitions. If at all possible, you should accept this

default selection.

If you do not have sufficient free space to install SUSE Linux and YaST cannot auto-

matically resize your existing operating system partitions, your only alternative

(besides adding another disk to your system) is to abort the SUSE install process,

remove the installation media, and reboot into your other operating system. You

must then free up sufficient disk space and clean up the organization of your oper-

ating system’s partition(s) using a utility such as Windows’ Disk Defragmenter. If

there is sufficient unused space on your Windows partition, you should be able to

restart the SUSE installation process and let YaST select appropriate partitioning

and resizing values for you.

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