Thinkpads Forum

I've read elswhere that it is best to partition the disk while it is FAT32 instead of after Windows has installed itself and made it NFST.

Is this correct? Will Windows then set itself up correctly in the reduced partition?

And how small can this partition be?

It is best to partition when you don't care what happens to existing data on the disk; partitioning is a great way to lose stuff. Having said that, if you're going to be partitioning and then installing Windows to a new partition, it doesn't really matter what the filesystem on the disk is since that data is pretty much meaningless after the partitioning is done. Partitioning while an OS is installed and just shrinking the partition size is possible (with the right program), but in my opinion it is far easier and safer to edit the partition table and then install any OS.

As for Windows setting itself up correctly on the partition: this depends entirely on whether or not there is enough space to install Windows. I'd also recommend installing Windows to the first partition (I believe Windows will want to install there by default) for best results; installing GRUB or LILO in the master boot record won't affect anything so long as you (or the distro installing the bootloader) adds the appropriate entry to start up Windows.

As for "how small can it go?" That depends on how much free space you'd like to have on the Windows bit. 10 GB is prolly a good size if you'd like it really small but with some room, but don't plan on having a lot of large programs installed all at once. I personally wouldn't go smaller than that, but that's just me. You could just allot the minimum space Windows needs to install and boot, which is around 2 GB (I think - might want to Google to verify).

Thanks for the reply, which pretty much confirms what I'd believed. As it's a new machine there is no data to be lost, and in any case I'm only keeping Windows there at all because once or twice a year I find I need to run a programme of that kind. Another reason is that support people never know anything about Linux and can only test things via Windows.

resizing should be pretty simple. I always partition my hds using the gparted live cd (gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php, just a ~30 mb iso) and it has never let me down, also on my thinkpad. I got xp running on a 20gig partition, but I hardly ever use it either.
Be sure to create those rescue cd thingies before you do anything to your partition table and/or master boot record.