[SOLVED] Does Win7 require 2 primary partitions?

[ronw]

I need to make room on my disk to dual boot Win7 so it has direct access to the hardware.

Most guides explain how to shrink an existing partition and create a new primary partition for Windows. However, I've seen some references to "newer Windows" needing 2 primary partitions, both in comments here and elsewhere: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Kubuntu:...ws_and_Kubuntu

I currently have Kubuntu installed with 2 primary partitions (/ and /home) and 1 extended partition (swap on sda5). If I can get away with only one primary partition for Win7, then I can just shrink, create, and install. But if I need 2 primary partitions, I'll need to copy an existing primary into a logical, etc. The latter isn't that much more more work, but I'd rather keep the partition operations to a minimum.

[vw72]

My Win7 has two partitions, but the second one is a recovery partition to restore the laptop back to pristine condition. There is nothing wrong with having your /home in an extended partion. Only your boot or root (if not separate boot partition) needs to be a primary partition.

[SteveRiley]

On a pristine disk with no existing partitions and operating systems, the Windows 7 graphical installer carves out a small 100 MiB primary partition and then, typically, uses the rest of the disk as a second primary partition.

The first partition:
* is called the the "system" partition (even though it doesn't contain the operating system)
* holds the Windows boot manager and boot configuration database (BCD)
* receives no drive letter, but is visible in Disk Manager

The second partition:
* is called the "boot" partition (even though Windows doesn't boot from it)
* holds the operating system
* becomes drive C:

Why all this complication? To ease post-installation enablement of BitLocker, Microsoft's volume encryption feature. When BitLocker first appeared in Vista, people routinely failed to partition their disks correctly and usually failed when trying to repartition with the OS installed. So the Windows 7 installer adopts a different approach -- what I described above -- so that people can enable BitLocker after installation and not worry about partition problems.

If you know you won't use BitLocker, then Windows 7 will happily work with a single partition. You just have to create this partition first using some other tool. Once you do that, then point the Windows installer to that partition, and it'll skip the step where it creates the 100 MiB "extra" partition.

[ronw]

Ah, that makes sense. No need for Bitlocker, so 1 partition it is.

Thanks (if that's the correct acknowledgment of help from a Quordlepleen).