Partitioning trouble...

[PhantasmagoricalTech]

I recently installed BT5R3, and I love it. Unfortunately, certain things just aren't working out as I expected and I feel I am spending to much time trying to fix it. So, I am trying to reinstall Windows 7 and run BT5 from Virtual desktop VMware instead of a single install( I probably should have done this at first).
But when i try to reinstall Windows, I says that it cannot install itself because the drive has unrecognized partitions. So I need to know how to fix that in order to get things back to normal, at which point I will have the time and patience to work out all my BT5 problems, while still being able to do what I need to do.
Any suggestions? I really need to get this done, I am spending WAY to much time figuring this stuff out

[z3ro]

i recommend gparted for partitioning your drive.. you can get the LiveCD, format your drive and install your WinOS.... by the way, why not Dual-Boot BT5 with Windows?

[PhantasmagoricalTech]

Thanks ill try it; dual boot isn't working either right now, but i think i'd rather just use the virtual desktop....

[namespace7]

If you set it up right, dual boot always works. If you messed up your partitions then of course it wont work, but with a little work you can get everything right.
There are so many ways to do partitioning and dual booting, but you can just use gparted to do partitioning and grub to do dual boot.

Here are some articles that will teach you how to do proper dual boot partitioning:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=732307
http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/15/how-to-dual-boot-linux-and-windows-xp/

[relax]

i would also say gparted its a great tool helped me a buntch of times
as soon as you have fixed your disk i would recommend to have dual boot.
ill use it for my mint, bt5 and win.
after i started with linux about 6months ago i love it i barley log on to windows anymore, when i think about it ill only log in to windows when ill need to backup my partition of linux
theres some tweaks  you have to do in bt5 but its worth it imo

good luck

[Cypherwight]

Running in a VMWare workstation is taxing, you can't get full functionality unless you REALLY work at it. Back when I first got into using Linux I tried the whole VMWare setup and after two months of struggling to get it to work right I just started over with a dualboot.

Now I have a dualboot on my netbook, a dedicated install on my laptop, and an install to a 16GB flash drive with persistence set up (for use on my tower or on-site work). Really the best thing you can do (if you can afford it) is to have a dedicated machine for Linux while you learn. That way you can look up fixes on your other computer if you get stuck. Since Linux can run on almost any system it shouldn't be too hard to find a really cheap laptop to put it on (I got mine for free, just had to replace the HD).

Use UNetbootin to install from an ISO to a USB drive, then you can install to any machine you want or just set up persistence (through the UNetbootin interface during setup) and use it on any machine without needing to ever have a permanent install. Hope you get it figured out. Let me know if you need any help.

[namespace7]

Unless you are doing gaming or some kind of media production, you don't need windows in most cases. I have been using linux as my main OS for quite some time now, and only use windows for video editing.