It seems Windows 8 that I'm on is only able to create primary partitions, and there appears to be no option for 'extended' or 'logical' partition.

Does anyone have Xposed installed ?

@cpx You are most likely on a GPT disk.

Not MBR.

Cpx: how are you creating them? diskpart? Disk manager. And as Bob said. MBR or GPT

only MBR has 4 primary, one of which is allowed to be of type extended

GPT supports up to 128 primary partitions, which you will likely never run into.

GPT has hundred of partitions (limited to 127 in windows)

@Hennes Apparently, my name is Bon now! :P

BonBon :-)

@Hennes Looks like it was an OEM installed Win8, so most likely GPT...

bob/bon was not the only typo in those sentences. Most fixed now

@cpx You might find this interesting.

What the... this is a rather ridiculous rant.

o_0 change.org/en-IN/petitions/…

* GPT isn't backwards-compatible, therefore PC BIOSes are incapable of booting GPT-enabled disks*

Hmm, not quite true. Simply update your BIOS to a recent one

Assuming a decent manufacturer.

If you have a no-name motherboard, buy a new one

Or work around it with encapsulated GPT

@Hennes It's more a limitation of Windows, that its client versions won't boot from GPT with a legacy BIOS.

Pity.

But saying Windows does not have GPT support is plain wrong.

@Hennes I'm creating them through Windows 8 default disk management utility.

@Hennes That post was from 2008.

So, after Vista but before 7.

I was using GPT exclusively for years to boot Windows and Linux before I even owned a system with a UEFI BIOS

@Hennes Slippery-effing-slope, right there.

didn't have a single UEFI system until 2012 but was using GPT since like 2007

@allquixotic Hm.. would chainloading BOOTMGR via GRUB allow that?

I guess so :\

Any idea how do I create exact size partitions? For example: If I want 250 GB so I enter 25000 MB (i.e. 250x1024) in partition dialog field under default disk management application for Windows 8 then after formatting the partition the size of partition in windows explorer would show it as 249 GB.

ON windows 7 I can check if I have a MBR with the disk manager

@Bob I chainloaded Windows' boot loader behind GRUB for many years, yes...

Not sure if win 8 has the same screens, but this is how it looks on 7

@cpx 250x1024 != 25000 (it's also not 250000 if we ignore typos)

@cpx I think it does that because of alignment

You're looking for 256000

Just a quick warning. You said before that you wanted to further shrink the OS partition.

Do so before creating any other partitions.

Moving partitions after creation can be pretty nasty.

Oh right, that was a typo.

I need to pay my bills. All the banks in my country use a Java applet for, ahem, "security". It is a Java applet that recently started displaying a Java alert "hey this is very unsecure please don't run this at all OK" alert. I can change the useragent to simulate a mobile browser (not android or iOS, or they will try to force me to download their (buggy) app).

This way they stop requiring Java, but they also remove the ability to transfer money and make payments. I use "they" because it happens at TWO bank I have accounts with.

I think I need to set up a virtual machine just to use my bank services. And I suspect I'm not the first. sigh

I meant to say that I enter the number 256000 (MB) into it and when it finishes with formatting the partition, windows explorer would show the size to be 249 GB.

@cpx Is this really a problem? :\

You could give 274877 (or 274878) MB a shot. That's 250 * 1024^3, with the one in parentheses rounded up.

@cpx compreviews.about.com/od/storage/a/ActualHDSizes.htm

Making the assumption that disk management is using decimal sizes, and Explorer is using binary sizes.

I just don't know what I'm doing. :/

Does it even matter if you have a 255 MiB or a 256 GiB volume ?

@Hennes I'd say it makes a very big difference.

In fact, a whole three orders of magnitude.

O.O

A mouse advertises itself as "Intelligent connectivity, no need to code, plug-and-play"

Uh, yeah. I means 255 vs 256. Not M vs G

:P

That mouse might be from the same manufacturer who made a "windows compatible" CPU cooling fan. The kind with two power connectors.

+5 volt and ground I think

"Gold-plated USB receiver"

Ok.

Uh, that sounds bad,

Best scrape off the gold to improve conductivity.

Gold is not a good choice. Copper is much better

@Hennes Actually, for connectors, gold is better.

Copper oxidises.

But it usually doesn't make any difference.

I pluig in a connector, leave it in pluce and 5 years later I replace the system

Less so because, in this case, it's the USB housing/sleeve/whatdoyoucallit. Not the actual electrical contacts.

@Hennes Copper oxidises very quickly in air. I believe it's typical to use tin or steel.

Copper or aluminium wires, but tin or steel contacts.

> Tin and tin alloy coatings are frequently considered as low cost options to gold on electrical connector contacts.

te.com/documentation/whitepapers/pdf/sncomrep.pdf

Tin is very mallable. I wonder if that helps to make a better contact.

Gold is also pretty malleable, so there is that :P

there's a lot of gold in electronic rubbish

Ah, but isn't that inside the chips? Where the wires are extremely small and thus corrosion can have relative much more influence ?

f-droid.org

A lot less annoying than play store

More and more anomalies in this world: youtube.com/watch?v=yX7k7KYkGSE

@HackToHell Is it Play Store competitor?

no, a FOSS alternative

where apps have no ads/tracking

@HackToHell How extensive is the catalogue and how to know hackers didn't malevolently modify apps?

Apps are built by them, not as extensive as play

Reminds me of AppBrain...

@HackToHell Same apps like in Plat Store but without ads?

Anyone here who can help with computer building? No? So empty, heh.

Computer building it lile playing with lego.

No more checking for DMA channels, jumpers for IRQ's etc like you had to in ye old days

Heh yeah. Yet I have memory issues (or maybe a faulty motherboard).

I'm posting a help thread in reddit's /r/buildapc. Hopefully someone responds

Hi everyone! I got a new caddy and it won't fit into the modular bay on my laptop with the screws in. Do I really need to screw this ssd in? It seems to be held on pretty tightly at the point of connection regardless

Hi thur!

Woah! All theses people I don't know here!

I used my HDDs (both of them in a E6500 laptop) without screws, but I know just how tightly they fit.

I am not sure how tightly your "pretty tightly" is. It might be the same, it might be a lot less tight.

I've an e6520 and the caddy I bought is seriously having trouble here

Hmm...in fact it wont go in all the way without screws either

This makes no sense...it is identical in size to the optical drive

This is how my caddy looks:

If I turn it over there are four screw on the botton which can hold the HDD/SSD

There are two opening to the side which do not need screws.

There's only 2 screw holes on mine but they're not recessed any, so if I try to slide it in the screws catch on the bottom

The screws which came with my caddy are quite small.

amazon.com/gp/product/B00BANG35M/…

this is what I got

MIne looks the same, buit without added manual on it, and with four holes.

Right

Bottom shot:

Mine's got two only

Yours is probably a bit more modern

Hmm...screws aside, it simply won't slide in all the way

I don't want to try forcing it but I dont see what is preventing it from working smoothly

Turns out the screws dont affect it, there's something else...

installing the ssd took quite a lot of effort as it was a tight fit. should I perhaps apply the same effort to the modular bay?

Hellow !

^_^

I can still easily install and remove the optical drive so I know there's nothing broken or blocking internally

Can any1 help me with a cranky Chrome ?

Source: amazon.com/Drive-Caddy-Modular-E6520-E6530/dp/…

@Hennes can u help me out ? :)

@Hennes It isn't even bent though lol

I undo all screws, turn the caddy over and pray to get things out.

It is really not designed to swap the drive in that caddy on a regular base

Yeah but I can't even get the caddy into the bay

here goes...one more attempt then I email Amazon asking for a refund

:/

Oh wow it worked

Heh

now to figure out why the computer recognized it once and now isn't letting me do jack squat with it

I used to swap drive between the internal bay, the caddy and the eSATA port.

It doesn't show up under my computer...

All worked lovely as long you you remembered to turn fake RAID off before installing any OS

If you put in a new drive it should not show up.

How do I turn that off

Okay, how do I make it show up (and more importantly install os)

I have my OS ready to go

Will it screw up my primary OS on my hdd?

This is confusing, god I suck at lower level stuff

Personally I use diskpart to create the partition table.

OK, lets start at the bottom

A) It needs to be connect, have power etc (which we have)

Is there any way I can just install the OS on that drive without needing to reboot?

Yep

Sure.

Clean reinstallation?

Yep, fresh out of the box windows 8 (not really a box cause I just replaced my cd drive and all but yeah)

Do you want to keep any data on the old drive?

I want to not touch the hdd.

That isn't happening

I need my hdd to not be affected at all

That way you can put the old drive back later and use F12 to select which one to boot

@Cyclone If it is removed nothing can happen to it

I don't know how to remove that.

On the E6500 it is one screw on the left and then pull it out.

Not sure about a 6520. I do not have one of those.

Uh...oh

Ok obnoxiously it seems the university versions of win7 and 8 are "upgrade only" but there's a full winxp...does that mean I install windows xp then upgrade to win8?

Does that seem to be a viable path to take for this?

I think there might be an answer to the win8 question on the main site

As to [teporarily] removing the old HDD, this is how it look like on the older model

yeah I found that on mine, I didn't know it was possible to do

I was sort of under the impression the modular bay was my only chance to upgrade this

It should be mentioned somewhere in the user manual or the (technicians) maintenance manual.

I love the E6500. Proper screen (1920x1200), display port, 3 different docking stations, ... :)

yeah my laptop is amazing, really quite happy with it as it stands and this ssd upgrade will only further my love of it

ok so what about burning the win8 iso to the ssd?

is that even proper terminology?

I have almost zero experience with win8. For win7 I just created a bootable USB pendrive from the iso. That worked flawless and was a lot faster than using a DVD

(as in, 2x to 4x as fast)

gotcha

What is the precise version of the universities win7 or win8 versions?

And which one do you prefer to install. 8 is more modern, but on non-touchscreen system I prefer win7

I'm basically just confused about the fact each version is claimed as an upgrade

I just got a Dell win7 prof. DVD with the laptop. Grabbed the ISO from that when I got it (to prevent it from getting lost). Then created a bootable iso, set the BIOS to sensible values and reinstalled.

Updated...

And made a ghost backup.

I don't seem to have any actual ISOs for these oses

Do you have a CoA ?

(Certificate or Authenticity, that 5 groups of digits/numbers)

Possible on the laptop, under the battery

I can't really flip this upside down now it's plugged into a great many things

If you want a legal DELL OEM DVD, you can phone them. A DVD costs about EUR5 plus shipping.

And the key is in the bIOS

ALternatively, if you get a legal CoA you can just download a iso for win7

At this rate I may go with ubuntu -_-

Heh. Unices++

I best not mention this link then: superuser.com/questions/78761/…

haha I'd rather go with win so I may use those links

two notes:

Ok wait so I'm trying to initialize the ssd and I have two format options

MBR or GPT

which one should I use if I intend to install the OS

MBR is the old DOS format. Max 4 partitions, max 2TiB

So GPT then?

GPT is the new improved format (well, newer. It is not brand new)

Both should work.

Lemme put it this way

Which one should I click

I have no idea if the E6520's BIOS is modern enough to boot from GPT though.

probably gpt?

Depend on the BIOS. Is it modern enough to recognise GPT ?

YOu got the manual for the 6520 ? I do not.

No clue, I went with the other one and formatted the drive.

I gave it Z.

cause Z is a cool letter

sadly, because affordable 4TiB SSDs would rock

right

heh

that'll be sick

Which dock(s) do you use with your laptop?

The legacy port replicator? Just so it has a better typing angle?

Or the main dock?

Or the big 2x DVI and 2x DP port dock ?

Is there any way I can check if my integrated or dedicated graphics card in use?

It's based on Switchable Graphics Technology.

Other than that: no idea

I stay away from mixed graphics since driver support is often limited

And I tend to use laptops for 4 to 8 years

I have been looking around for hours in Control panel, Searching Google, Control Center, HP website but I cannot seem to find a solution.

I even ran a game but there was no notification that the graphics card has been switched over etc.

So, I wonder what's going on in the background?

Which graphics do you have Nvidia? AMD ?

Yes, AMD. That's the one I have with similar look of Catalyst Control Center.

That screenshot is from h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Display-and-Video-e-g-Windows-8/…

Mind you, it seems to only show up if you are on mains power

Yes, I had it plugged in just 15 minutes ago when I was trying to figure it out.

But how do I know if it is in use?

No option to set the display to "advanced" or to "just show fucking all information" ?

And it says that I'm using the latest version of CCC.

Last Update: 10 June 2013.

morning

Hi

@cpx The catalyst drivers from AMD (which might use the AMD stuff only) or a modified version from HP?

It looks like it isn't made compatible to work with Windows 8 yet.

So you are probably on the dedicated GPU 24/7

What does GPU-Z claim?

techpowerup.com/gpuz

@Hennes It came pre-installed on the system.

Ah

I sometimes forget that not everybody always wipes a factory pre-installed system.

GPU-Z hangs up at the splash screen.

It won't run for some reason. I waited for 5 minutes.

@Hennes: I've been meaning to do that to mine

I usually make a full disk backup before I first power up the machine

I already want to buy a new license to either Windows 7 or 8.

Then see what is on it (which hardware etc) and reformat

I am not sure win7 can still be bought

/me peerst at your Stack Overflow profile

Age 21?

Any chance on an educational licence?

Those are usually much cheaper

Not that I know of yet.

Might be worth looking into before you buy anything.