Tell me more ×
Ask Ubuntu is a question and answer site for Ubuntu users and developers. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 1 down vote favorite

I have 3 Primary/Basic partitions: sda1. Ubuntu 11.10 root drive (40G) sda2. FreeBSD root (20G) sda3. Windows XP root drive(4G)

I have a Logical/Extended Partition sda4 of 234GB, divided into 5 disks (sda6~9).

The Primary Partition#3 [sda3] has only 4G space, which is quite insufficient (I need Windows only for MS Office, and a few odd engineering software; so I wish to use the least possible, but efficient, space for it).

My query is, can I install Windows XP to one of the disks (sda6~9) on the Logical/Extended partition without damaging the Partition table structure and the in ANY of the Primary & Logical partitions/disks?

Partitions Structure: /dev/sda
/dev/sda1   ext4   /       Oneiric-Ocelot       40G`
/dev/sda2   ufs            FreeBSD              20G
/dev/sda3   ntfs           WinXP Pro            4G      #This will be formatted 'ext4' & contents of '/Mix' will come here
/dev/sda4   extended                            234G
    /dev/sda5   ext4    /Docs        Docs              34G
    /dev/sda6   ext4    /Multimedia  Multimedia        186G
    /dev/sda7   unallocated                            2MB
    /dev/sda8   ext4    /Mix         Mix               10G   #XP is to be installed here
    /dev/sda9   linux-swap                             04G`
share|improve this question
I think you might need a professional tool to make it done!, because I have made a big mistake by doing these things by using small apps. I recommend you to install EASEUS Partition Manager on windows and make changes safely . Gparted will do the same, but i haven't tried it.Remember that you are going to convert a logical partition to a primary one! make backups first – aking ubuntu Apr 15 '12 at 13:31

1 Answer

up vote 0 down vote

Windows can only be installed on a Primary partition or it won't boot.

share|improve this answer
1  
Yes it can but only if the boot files (MBR) reside on a Primary partition. – Peachy Jul 17 '12 at 1:30
@msPeachy the OS boot record sector and the boot files can be in a primary partition while the rest of Windows is somewhere else? – John S Gruber Aug 12 '12 at 22:19
Yes, according to this, also a friend of mine tried and it did work. – Peachy Aug 13 '12 at 10:26
Sorin, I've done it. An OS can be installed on logical partitions too. Btw, it a very old issue; I later decided to dump Windows completely... And I used 11.10 (later 1.04, 12.10) happily! I use the reqd Windows s/w like Office via PlayOnLinux. – VascoZ Nov 18 '12 at 14:04

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.