I have tried, but is not functioning.

In fact the boot corresponding to WindowsNT is pointing to (hd0, 1), and is when goes to reinstall vista. with hdo, 2 ViISTA boots normally, with the condition to have the uSB HDD branched.

the estructure of the disk, is as follows: (from disk adminiistrator)

HDD internal: hd0, 0 : System rescue (I suppose), no letter, EISA configuration
hd0,1 C: System, boot, Pagination file)
hd0,2 D: Primary, only for data
HDD external hd1, 0 (or 1) no letter 36 MB Primary (empty I suppose).
hd1, 1 (or 2) no letter 1,57 MB Navigatrix (I suppose)

If I try to use bootrec (at commad line cmd, but is not accepted as program or instruction.
I have only one user (administrator level) but Sysetm simbol is not C: but C:\users\ALHENA (user name). Should be a question of level?

By the way where are you located?

I'm sorry I can't help you. It's been too long since I messed with MSWindows.

Currently I'm anchored near a teeny island 3 miles off the coast of New Caledonia awaiting weather to head to Australia....and you?

In Sitges, Barcelona.

Thanks a lot for you help in any way.

In Navigatrix world. what do you think about to re install Navigatrix in the internal HDD from the stick, saving the Vista installation)

They will move the boot to C: again?

Alternatively, format C: and re install VISTA from recovery internal drive?

How big is your internal hard drive?

How much data is on both partitions? (Vista and Recovery)

I'll write up some opinions and get back to you before we sail Thursday night, your time.

Internal Disk is 111,8 GB,

C: VISTA is 52,1 GB with 40,5 GB free space (NTFS)

D: DATA is 51,8 GB, 46 free space and could be backup if needed. (NTFS)

Recovery VISTA 7,81 GB (EISA Configuration)

In fact, the C: has been formatted several times on the re installation of Vista, thus there is no data except Vista files. The PC is only used for navigation purposes.

The only thing to maintain is the Recovery and even, I'm thinking to move to W8, as this is my only PC running Vista (I'm still on XP for the rest, and I'm afraid tha it will be discontinued)

Thanks a lot for your help, and sorry for steal so much time from you

With 110GB you have plenty of room...to begin. The real basic question is "what do you want to do?"

You have indicated that this machine will be used for navigation and you could just do a blanket installation of Navigatrix....one machine, one system.

But I wouldn't recommend that method. Paul Higgins (and friends) have a dandy little script that takes Google Earth Images and geo-references them for use in OpenCPN. Check it out at http://www.gdayii.ca Unfortunately the folks at Google haven't opened up their software to the Linux community, and to run a similar script is not possible in the Linux world....yet.

Your drive has three partitions. 1) Vista; 2) Data for restoring the system; and 3) Recovery, the partition that makes the second partition useful.

I suggest that you keep them, but reduce their size to what you expect you will need to make room for Navigatrix.

For example, the Vista partition at current size plus a 2 to 5 gigabytes extra; the second partition is just storage so it can be whittled down to the current size plus whatever you feel like....500MB just in case it needs to write to the partition...whatever.

The third partition doesn't need much elbow room either. It is just basically unpacking the data from the second partition and writing it to the first partition.

Here what I recommend you do:

Boot up Navigatrix from the USB stick.

Under Menu> Preference> Partition Editor you will find a program called "gparted"...the Partition Editor. It will slice and dice your drives up however you want. It allows you to easily create, delete, reformat, resize partitions and slide them to the front or back of the drive.

Further down I've attached a screenshot of what it should look like when you're done. Don't mind the stated size of the partitions. I don't have a whole lot of room for the demonstration.

Item #1 is your Vista partition. Make it as large or small as you want. My personal Windows 7 partition is 18.55GB. This is for the data and all the crap that goes with it. I, personally like a little space so I don't have to delete anything just to keep running.

#2 is your DATA partition. As I said earlier...as small as you feel comfortable.

The same for #3 the Recovery Partiton. On your machine #2 AND #3 might be reversed, but you get the idea.

You reduce the size of the partition and sssssslllide it over. Eventually you will have a large portion of you hard drive "Unallocated".

This is good be you will have room for the new system. The problem, however, is MS Windows systems can't deal with a drive that has more than 4 partitions....

With the remaining "Unallocated" space you create the fourth partition. This is called an "extended partition". You will see it labelled #4 .

Extended partitions can be sub-divided into 1 to 4 additional partitions called "logical partitions" and MS Windows won't have a fit.

I recommend in your case that this extended partition should be divided into three logical partitions.

1) root, that keeps the inner working of the system...#5 in the picture. You should give it 5GB worth of space at minimum. Yes, it's possible to make it smaller...but really? My root partition is 20GB and it 75% full because I've loaded lots...and I mean lots, of extra applications and stuff I don't even understand. 5GB will give you reasonable start. Over 10GB starts to place you in the "avid" category.


2) home; This is your space. All your personal configurations, email, books, music, videos...they live here at #6. This should be the bulk of your drive space. It is also a very good idea to have a separate home partition. If you upgrade, change, or completely screw up your system and have to re-install your personal data remains safe at home.

And finally, 3) swap. This is marked #7 on the screenshot. Swap should be the size of the amount of RAM that you have in your machine. Frequently you just don't need it. When you do you will most likely never use the full capacity...but it still is a good idea just in case.


When this is all said and done and you applied the changes; taken the dog for a walk...had dinner; you have the layout for an easy and trouble free installation.

....that will be the next post.

Thanks a lot! I'ts nice!

A good news! I have succeed to transfer the MBR to HDD. Is a little program call bootice 0.8.2010.1228, that moves the MBR to the desired disk very simply . Just tell what's the destination at its all. Runs on Linux (in fact it seems Linux based) and W. Can do more things, but for this is especially simple

After some tries with bootsect, bcdedit, etc, without success, Is done!

I think I will take a rest during your sailing and make some trials with the stick and the external HDD to ensure the stability of the system (in previous versions I have some troubles when I use GPS, AIS and Raymarine System, before to decide to put it in the internal HDD.

In navigation, with my low level of knowledge in code writing and without Internet, should be a problem.

In any case, thanks a lot for your support. I really have enjoyed my learning on Navigatrix. I'm sure that I will succeed as well in using them as my navigator system!

Good luck and good weather on your sail to Australia.

Best regards!!!!

I'll leave you to your own devices. However, once the hard drive is partition it's just a simple matter of a "manual" installation and assigning the right file system to the right partition....connect the dots.

Now, as for your previous comment about upgrading your other machines to Windows 8....up grade even further with a Linux distribution. if your machines are a few years old (even if they aren't) check out Navigatrix's sisters WattOS, or Lubuntu. It costs nothing but time to take a look.

I willl do!

Good sailing and we reconcacts when your are a shore again!

Good Luck!

Josep

The page http://www.gday.ca refers to a warehousing company...?

And the plugin from OpenCPN is only for the windows version.

I found a a page showing how to do it with Linux (haven't tried it yet, thought):
http://www.svsarana.com/make_charts_fro ... _earth.php

That's http://gdayii.ca/....