Can Windows 7 tolerate changes in partition sizes?

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 11:58:18AM -0500, Kevin Cozens wrote:
> My father has asked me about installing Linux on his computer. I'm not 
> sure what sparked the request but I'm happy to set it up to dual boot. 
> His computer is running Windows 7. I booted the machine using a live CD 
> of Ubuntu and verified that everything appeared to be working including 
> the printer and the WiFi adapter.
>
> My concern is about whether the OEM version of Windows 7 that came with 
> the machine is going to complain about the change in partitions and/or 
> partition sizes and think it may not be an authentic install of the MS 
> OS.
>
> I am hoping it is ok but I read about issues with recent versions of 
> Windows and how some (a few?) system changes can lead to requiring the 
> purchase of a new copy of Windows as it will no longer accept its a valid 
> copy running on the same system.

If you use windows itself to shrink the disk, it certainly won't complain.
Other tools might upset the boot loader (which can then be fixed using
a bootable windows 7 repair disk).

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows7/Create-a-system-repair-disc

Some installations can't do that for some reason, but there are plenty
of iso images out there that people have put up that you can use.

So after resizing with something other than windows' storage manager, you
would probably have to use the 'repair boot' option on the recovery disc.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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