[ale] Fought Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu 14.10 (resolved)

[Tom Freeman]

For what it is worth, this is by way of "Thank you" to the list. If you 
are not actually interested, delete and feel good about this online 
community.

Short story - as per something mentioned months ago on this list, when 
dual installing Windows and a Linux, Windows first with ___lots___ of 
disk, let Windows resize things, and then Linux. Great pain seems to 
follow any other procedure.

The school I'm currently at is (aren't they all?) mired in Windows. As 
part time, not a problem for me, but some of the handouts for the students 
"could be better". In any event, I find myself on occasion having to 
"support" students with Windows issues, along with the ever popular 
seventy bazillion different calculators. Since I haven't used Windows 
since the days of 3.17 (??), and Word even longer (Word 1 on an 8088 - 
sheesh!), if I'm to function quickly I need to get some practice. Hence, 
back in January purchased 8.1 and MSOffice to instal on my laptop, already 
running a completely screwed Windows 7 and Ubuntu. Getting Windows 7 
repaired using the manufacturer's disk so that video hardware acceleration 
worked did not seem possible unless I shelled out $$$$, and I wouldn't 
learn anything in the process.

Took my installation supplies, and dropped 8.1 onto the machine simply 
accepting the defaults. This worked for a while (3 weeks?), and the system 
started throwing Windows errors, complaining about being out of disk 
space. Tried a reinstall with no success, so I needed to wait a bit so I 
had time to blow away everything. Tried installing Windows on a 
prepartitioned system, giving it 250 GB of disk space, Ubuntu on the other 
250 GB partition. Windows complained (and I managed to lose my credentials 
for the MS login - that is another irritation). Tried another reinstall 
giving Windows the whole disk, then using Ubuntu to shrink the partition. 
Windows worked for a day or two - then developed the habit of freezing I/O 
_before_ I could get logged in, requiring a power cycle.

I'm not sure what triggered the memory, but I think somebody here 
indicated that Windows 8.1 does not like anybody else resizing its 
partition, and to size the partition with Windows. Since the system seemed 
to whine about disk space at 250 GB, I installed 1T disk. Told Windows to 
use 500 GB, which it split into two partitions for reasons known only to 
Microsoft. Ubuntu sits on the other 500 GB, and I've had a useable Windows 
partition for four days now. Now to attempt to not foul it up again!!

All of which is to thank somebody whose offhand comment I can not find for 
somehow giving me a clue when it was needed!

Thank you to one and all for help over the years, and the use of your 
bandwidth for this! It was and is appreciated.