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t3ch
Asked: 2010-11-05 12:21:41 +0800 CST

Partition doubt before installing Ubuntu 10.10

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I am trying to install Ubuntu 10.10 on a machine running Windows 7 Ultimate currently. I have few doubts, before I moved forward with installation regarding partitioning (I have lot vista last time without any back up :( ). So I am following the tutorial here

My current machine config is:

  • Windows 7 Ultimate
  • 300 GB (262 GB NTFS Windows + 100 Mb (System files) + 37 GB Unallocated (Used Windows Shrink Tool))
  • I have Ubuntu 10.10 on USB (with USB plug in (which boots it perfectly))

My doubts are: The author has mentioned about making multiple partitions under Ubuntu and windows-

  • Windows 7 system partition(I am guessing its my 262 GB) (sda1)
  • Extended Partition - (sda2)
  • Windows Partition (Windows Files) - (sda5)

Windows data partition (user files);"You can share it in Linux". I definitely want this, if I can at least open my media(pics, videos n all from both OS)

Linux Root, Linux swap, Linux Home

1.Do I really need all this? 2.If I do need these 3 Linux partitions, considering 37GB for Linux, how would you suggested me distribute it?

Your help is highly appreciated.

windows-7

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You can use all 37gb for Linux (the installer will recommend a size for the swap partition for you). You do not need to have a seperate /home partition as the installer will preserve your settings and data if you ever need to reinstall.

    You can then just mount your Windows partition so you can access your data right from Ubuntu.

    Since you've already repartitioned your disk it's probably not worth the effort to undo, but the Wubi installer is designed so you can have an easy to install dual-boot without having to to worry about this kind of thing.

    • 4

  2. If I understand you right, your harddisk is looking like this:

    1. 262GiB NTFS (Windows Main + your Data)
2. 100MiB NTFS (Windows System Files)
3.  37GiB Unallocated Space

    If this is correct, I'd propose the following setup:

    1. 262GiB NTFS (Windows Main + your Data)
2. 100MiB NTFS (Windows System Files)
3. Logic Partition Starts here
    4.  8GiB ext4  /        (Linux root Partition)
    5.  2GiB Swap  Swap     (Linux Swap Space)
    6. 27GiB ext4  /home    (Home Partition)

    The system partition could even be less, my (full of garbage) system has never grown over 6GiB and if you cleanup from time to time it never will. Important (imo) is the separate home partition, this will allow you to reinstall/upgrade the system as often as you want, without losing a single one of your settings or files.

    The reason behind the proposed partition layout in the tutorial, is the assumption of the ideal setup for Windows (which should also have an extra data partition).

    • 2

  3. You don't really need all of that; that said, it'll make it easier to switch between Linux installs if you use a separate /home partition. You will need a swap partition, will be installed by default. You won't need a separate Windows Data partition; you can access your whole partition from Linux if you so choose. When I was dual booting, I did! If you decide to go with separate root and home partitions, Bobby's got a good partitioning scheme. You can set those up from within the installer environment.

    • 1