r/debian • u/Emergency-Cry2741 • 5h ago

Need help with partitioning

My goal is to make a partition of my ssd in the Debian installation usb. I cannot do it in windows.

Usually, this would just be selecting “manual” as the format when setting up the disk, but when I do that, only the usb flash drive itself shows up, and not the ssd itself. I tried going into busybox and using fdisk but that didn’t work, and neither did cfdisk or part.

After I partition it, I will use the free partition to install Debian and dual boot windows

4 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

2

u/pelazas1 1h ago

Might be the BIOS storage mode set to RAID/RST, the installer won't see the SSD until it's AHCI. If Windows is on it, boot it once in safe mode after switching.

1

u/r0b0_sk2 3h ago

Can you use the gparted live iso? https://gparted.org/download.php

0

u/dialtd 4h ago

You absolutely should resize the Windows C: partition using Windows tools, assuming it is a reasonably standard installation. Windows utilities are designed by those who know best how to handle this without damaging the OS installation. Then install the Linux based OS into the free space.

Get details from the Linux OS distributor with help as needed from the distributor documentation or your favorite AI chat, or ask specific questions here. Include specifics about the target computer and whether it uses MBR or UEFI for booting when asking any source, since the two are significantly different.

1

u/Emergency-Cry2741 4h ago

I unfortunately cannot resize the partition within windows, I have to do it externally

1

u/redfacedquark 1h ago

OP means some windows based live OS, you can't resize what you're running off. Although if you have shut down windows properly (command line not gui), the debian installer resize option has not failed me in decades. No idea why you can't see your other disk, you sure there's not a disk choice in the partitioning step?