Mint 8 cannot create a new partition for installation SOLVED

[Kitwn]

I'm trying to install Mint 8 main edition to dual boot with the existing Windows XP OS on my Compaq Presario V2000 laptop (exact model number is V2029AP upgraded to 1G RAM). Mint 8 runs fine from the CD on this machine (Mint 9 will only work in compatibility mode for anyone else struggling with the same model) but when I try to install it to the HDD it cannot create a partition to load into.

The 60GB drive is currently all allocated to the Windows C: drive but I have defragmented the disk and there is a contiguous block of about 20GB shown as free space at one end (can a disk have an end?) according to the defrag analysis.
At the 'install' 'prepare disk space' stage Mint says there is only 7.8MB of space available for it to use. Selecting either automatic or manual creation of partitions makes no difference. The option to enter a size for a new partition in the 'edit partition size' window (see user manual page 16) is not shown.
I cannot find a way to resize the existing partition using the disk utility in Mint running from the live CD or from Windows XP.
I have Mint 8 as a dual boot with Windows 7 on my main PC so am familiar with the installation process but this one has me stumped.

All help gratefully received

Kit

[dawgdoc]

See if this will help. Boot into the LiveCD without going to install.
Then > Menu > Administration > GParted
See if this will let you select the WinXP partition, if so, select Resize|Move. I would leave at least 5Gib of the unused space with WinXP.

You have backed up any data you can not risk losing?

[Kitwn]

Dawgdoc,

Thanks for the prompt reply!
I tried that and got nowhere. GParted max and min possible sizes for resizing the XP partition are only different by the 7.8MHz available space that Mint could find. It's as if XP has filled the 'unused' space with otherwise invisible data. Maybe Compaq has it's own strange version of NTFS

I'd rather not wirewool the disk and reload XP as well, after partitioning the disk, but that may prove to be the quickest fix. Everything is backed up.
Ithought there must be a simple cause and solution. Plus I don't like being beaten, especially by a mere computer and I can't be the only person who has suffered this problem, though I cannot find anything similar mentioned in the forums.

Thanks again

Kit

[Kitwn]

Problem solved!
I tried running Gparted again from the live CD to see if there was anything I'd missed. There was a telltale triangle with a '!' in it next to the drive which I assumed meant trouble. When I clicked on the 'properties' tab I got a message telling me that the NTFS file system was corrupted and that no changes could be made until I'd run fdisk /f (the /f argument is critical) via Windows...

Mint 8 is now loaded and happily updating itself via the wireless network which took only seconds to set up.

From other parts of the forum it looks as if the final version of Mint 9 has some changes relative to the RC version relating to video drivers which may allow it to run on this machine after. Not a subject for this thread though.

Kit

[dawgdoc]

Congratulations and good job diagnosing.