Re: [LUG] Dual Boot Windows 7

to perform partition resizing from within windows (it may not even be
possible depending on the type of partition, i.e., dynamic vs simple
volume) especially if you have one single boot volume (200Mb 'loader'
partition + the rest of the disk as your NTFS data partition).
Partitioning secondary or tertiary non-OS disks from within windows is
fine however.
You will be best served by obtaining the gparted live CD and booting
from that to initially resize your windows partition.

I'll definitely +1 this. Sorry if my post implied that resizing partitions from within windows was the way to go. It's definitely a no-no.
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Steven is not necessarily correct that you will not have to defrag
windows first: this is a random thing, depending on how heavily windows
has been used.

Good to know. I hadn't run into any problems from this, so I guess I was erroneously thinking that it was a historical problem.
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Debian handles full disk encryption very
elegantly, and you should definitely implement it on a laptop (easily
lost or stolen if you carry it around with you). The partitioner will
guide you through setting up the LUKS volumes and the encryption. I take
it I don't really need to tell you why you should encrypt the entire
system rather than just your home partition?

Actually, I'd like to know why it's considered such a good idea (full disk vs home directory). I know a lot of effort went into implementing it, so there must be a good reason for it, I'm just not entirely clear on what that is. I can certainly see certain use cases where it might be important, but for everyday users, not so much.