1 TB hdd and no space to create a partition for linux !

I have a brand new Acer aspire 5811 with core i5 processor and all that.

There is windows 7 Home Premium pre-installed on it. I want to install arch and setup a dual boot system.

EDIT: Looks like I have also another issue. I have a dynamic disk. I really don't know what it could be, but it apparently means that I cannot use Gparted (or any linux based tool) to delete the recovery partition. Windows 7 disk management tool doesn't allow me to delete it.

The problem is:

Windows shows 4 partitions

1. 14 GB UNKNOWN recovery partition
2. 100MB NTFS System Reserved partition for Windows 7
3. 448GB NTFS Windows 7 system partition
4. 468GB NTFS Data partition for windows 7

But GpartedLive cd and also arch setup show 5 partitions

1. 938Kb UNKOWN system reserved partition
2. 14 GB UNKNOWN recovery partition
3. 100MB NTFS System Reserved partition for Windows 7
4. 448GB NTFS Windows 7 system partition
5. 468GB unusable space

Because of this, I cannot create another primary partition.

Can any body guide me about how should I go for creating partition for installing arch ?

Note: I need to keep windows 7 working.

regards.

Solution 1:

You can't shrink or create new ones because you already have four primary partitions.

You can't create more than 4 primary partitions and you already have all them: Recovery and System reserved are allways primary; Windows 7 by default create a primary one.

Recommendation: Delete the "Data" partition and shrink the windows 7 to 100gb or so, then create a new extended partition. Then all new partitions will be logical partitions inside the extended one. Place your data partition there and all your linux partitions inside that extended partition.