Problems with installing Linux alongside Windows...

[thekarter104]

Hello everyone.

I have a problem with installing Linux next to Windows.
In Linux the error message says that installing could not be done.
It's just that, nothing more. So I booted back into Windows and used DISKPART and found out I can't shrink partition above 864 MB WTF?

I have 70 GB left on the drive, so why can't I shrink the partition to create a new one?

What do I have to do now?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Deleted User]

I have several questions:

• What distro are you trying to install, and how are you going about installing it?
• What partitioning scheme are you using (MBR/GPT)?
• Does your laptop support UEFI? If so, did you boot your Live CD/USB via UEFI? Are you perhaps using Legacy Boot?
  
• Was the installer able to create any partitions at all? What's the usage like on your Windows partition?

Also, for what it's worth, DISKPART's been pretty weird in my experience. You may want to try shrinking the partition a few MB at a time.

 

[ry755]

You should defragment your hard drive before shrinking. That will allow you to shrink your partition more than 864 MB

 

[thekarter104]

You should defragment your hard drive before shrinking. That will allow you to shrink your partition more than 864 MB

I did that and now it can't be more than 1620 MB...

 

[ry755]

I did that and now it can't be more than 1620 MB...

Edit: wait, I forgot you're trying to shrink, not expand. I don't know then. Just make sure you have enough free space.

 

[oldman82]

I noticed that some files can't be defragged or moved if they are locked files like $MFT or $LogFile .
I've tried boot-time defrag in the past but it doesn't always work.
So those files might stop a partition from being shrunk as much as you would like.