[ltp] Dual-boot with Windows 10

[cr]

On Fri, 23 Apr 2021 09:57:29 +0200
Joerg Bruehe <joerg.bruehe at web.de> wrote:

> Hi!
> 
> On 22.04.21 15:11, cr wrote:
> > I've just acquired a refurbed E575 with a fresh Win10 install on it,
> > which I'm intending to dual-boot with Debian. >
> > In the past I've just 'shrunk' Windows and created an extended /sda4
> > partition with several logical partitions in it (for OS and data)
> 
> How strong is the CPU (how many cores? Hyperthreads?) and how much
> RAM has the machine? Is it a realistic option to run Windows in a VM?

It's a 6 core with 8 GB of RAM.   So I guess it would run Windows in a
VM.   My main reason for wanting to keep the existing Windows is just,
it's there, why wipe it if I don't have to?   

My only (very occasional) use of Windows is to make minor adjustments
to a program I wrote for a friend in XBasic (the Max Reason version),
it will run on anything from XP on a Thinkpad R40 onwards, so long as I
have a laptop with some version of Windows running, that will do, so
keeping it on my newest Thinkpad is just insurance against one of my
old ones dying.   
 
> IMHO, the advantages are mostly in the snapshot, backup and recovery 
> area. Honestly, I don't trust Windows  there, even though I have to
> use it for some few purposes (especially tax declaration).
> In the Microsoft "sysinternals" tools there is a tool "Disk2vhd"
> which will create a vhd file from a running Windows machine, and this
> vhd file can be used as the disk of a virtual machine (VirtualBox or
> others).
> 
> I have gone this route and it works for me (Windows 10 Home as a VM
> in VirtualBox on Kubuntu 18.04 LTS), the only remaining difficulty
> for me is the activation (I want wo avoid a Microsoft account).
> 
> In case you want to try that, contact me off-list for further hints.

I wouldn't want a Msoft account either, and I can do without constant
updates.   I don't let my old XP/Win7 installs near the Internet so (I
hope) they can't catch a virus.
 
> > However, in this laptop Windows has been a bit greedy thus:
> > (according to Gparted):
> > /dev/sda1	ntfs	Recovery	499MiB	hidden
> > /dev/sda2	fat32			100MiB	boot
> > /dev/sda3	Unknown			16MiB	msftres
> > /dev/sda4	ntfs			465GiB
> > 
> > ... so the bulk of Windoze is in /dev/sda4 so I can't create an
> > extended partition there without blowing Windows away.   Which I
> > will do if I have to, but is there an easy way around this?
> 
> I have no info how important the first three partitions are for
> Windows and what would happen in case you remove them. But even if
> that were possible, you would still have to shrink sda4 and either
> move it to the end of the disk (let it remain sda4) or leave it where
> it starts now and rename it sda3.
> 
> None of that looks nice and easy to me.

James pointed out that under UEFI the four-partition limit doesn't
apply.   So I think I can just leave /sda1 to /sda3 alone, shrink /sda4,
and create /sda5 onwards for Linux use.   I'll give that a try,
anyway, and see what happens.   Since it's a new-to-me machine,  I have
no data at risk yet.   The worst I can do is wreck Windows and start
again with Linux only.

So many thanks for the offer of help but I'm probably okay.

Thanks

Chris