Dual booting Linux Mint Debian 201403 and Win 8.1 [SOLVED]

[JohnGregor]

hi, can some one PLEASE
give me a step by step instructions on how to install LinuxMint Debian with win 8.1,
i am new to Linux, Debian Mint version works good on my dell 2720 all in one. i get stock at partitioning;
regular Linux Mint no problems on my laptop,
problems are on desktop,
i have win 8.1 installed on drive B, drive A is actually my drive for Data,this is just the way this dell 2720 all in one is configured.
i don't know how to install Debian.

configuration as follows:

Dell 2720 XPS All In One
computer is in legacy mode, 8GB RAM
boot drive is drive B with win 8.1 installed (msata drive 120GB)
drive A is my data storage drive (SSD 240)GB

i get stock
getting partition or where and how to configure next step,
can some one give me step by step installation guide.
john

[gtsfer]

This is a good place to start for W8 systems. http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=163126

The SSD is another matter. If you search on Google for "install Linux Mint SSD site:forums.linuxmint.com" there's a few threads on this. Here's just one that looks recent. http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=164403

[JohnGregor]

hi, still hoping for installation guide for
Linux Mint Debian 64bit most important the partition section !!!
thank you

[JohnGregor]

hi, all i need is
just name and approximate size of partitions,
what partitions to create
and the place to install boot loader

thank you

[gtsfer]

Oh, OK. The partitions part is simple. For a basic install, nothing fancy they look like this...

Partition Type File System Label Size
1st partition: primary ext4 / 20 GB Root Partition
2nd partition: primary linux-swap <none> 8 GB Swap File – Use 2x RAM Size
3th partition: primary ext4 /home Rest of drive Home Partition

In my case I installed the boot loader on sda.

Gparted.png

[JohnGregor]

as you can see i have 2 hard drives, the one with windows 8.1 is sdb,
so where should i install the boot loader sda or sdb and after 1,2 or 3,

thank you

[austin.texas]

In order to determine the best partition setup, we need to see what your current partitioning is.
Boot the live DVD or USB, open a terminal, enter this command and post the results.
sudo parted -l && sudo blkid -o list && sudo os-prober

Also, do you want to install Mint to sda - or sdb where your Windows is?

[JohnGregor]

ok i have 3 pictures, 2 from Linux, and 1 from win 8,1. of my hard drives
iam not sure this is normal or not, in linux my drive with windows looked without partitions, maybe i may need to reinstall it.
any way here are the pictures.

Screenshot from 2014-04-15 14_01_51.png

Screenshot from 2014-04-15 14_02_33.png

Clipboard01.jpg

thank you

[JohnGregor]

hi, and i would like to install Linux to drive B with windows, so i can reinstall operating systems if needed.
thank you

[austin.texas]

hi, and i would like to install Linux to drive B with windows, so i can reinstall operating systems if needed.
thank you

The reason I asked that is because my preferred method would be to install Mint to a separate drive. That way Windows and Mint would have their own drives separately, and neither would interfere with the other's boot process. It also lessens the possibility of accidentally messing up the Windows partition during installation of Mint. That is just personal preference.

[JohnGregor]

ok, i can see this to be good way, i can do this
same options on the boot screen
windows or Linux ??
thank you

[austin.texas]

With the error messages that you got about the GPT partitioning being corrupt, I would hesitate to recommend anything regarding the Windows drive.
I would backup any files on sda that you want to keep, and repartition sda for installation of Mint on that drive.

Here is a complete tutorial on how to partition for linux.
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html

In addition to that there are a lot of different ways to approach partitioning for Mint. The graphic posted by gtsfer is very nice.

[JohnGregor]

ok, lets assume i got this fixed, i will format and reinstall win 8.1 to drive b
lets install Linux Mint Debian to disk a as per your recommendation
where to install boot loader ,
what partitions to create for Linux Mint.

thank you

[austin.texas]

ok, lets assume i got this fixed, i will format and reinstall win 8.1 to drive b

If you are going to reinstall Win 8.1, you will be able to fix the GPT partition error first.

lets install Linux Mint Debian to disk a as per your recommendation
where to install boot loader ,

Install Windows first, then when you install Mint, the boot menu (grub) will see and place the Windows 8.1 on the menu so that you can boot the OS of your choice.
Be sure to install the bootloader (grub) to sda. That should be the default (at the bottom of the screen when you are choosing the partitions).

what partitions to create for Linux Mint.

The partitioning in gtsfer's graphic is ideal. That gives you a 20GB partition for / and an 8GB swap partition and a big data partition.
Keep in mind that Linux can read the files on your Windows partitions, but Windows cannot read the linux partitions (unless you make the data partition on sda NTFS).

[JohnGregor]

thank you
i think this will do it, give me few days, i will let you know.

truly yours

john

[JohnGregor]

hi, well i was wrong, it just helped some,
after reinstalling win8.1 few more partitions showed up and all got confusing;
how about now help with installation,
this is what i have :
what partition and where to setup the boot loader.*** step by step ***PLEASE
thank you

drive A.png

drive B.png

thanks

[austin.texas]

Assuming that you want to use sda as your Mint drive, an important question is - have you backed up the 86GB of data that you already have on that drive?

What I would do is make a complete backup of that data on sdb and then delete that partition. Then I would create the partitions that I want for mint.
Since you have 86GB of data that I am sure you probably want to share with Windows, create a 20GB partition for / and an 8GB swap partition, just as gtsfer's graphic shows. Then for your data, you can create a NTFS data partition and a linux data partition. It is up to you to decide how big those data partitions should be.

If all that sounds like a good plan, then I would be happy to detail how to do it, step by step.

[gtsfer]

Assuming that you want to use sda as your Mint drive, an important question is - have you backed up the 86GB of data that you already have on that drive?

Yes, if this is a fresh install of W8, what is that 86GB of data exactly? Something is on that drive, or Windows certainly thinks so. Is that still there from before and your fresh install just didn't touch that drive?

[JohnGregor]

hi, and thank you for responding,
as i mentioned before, if it is possible i would prefer to use " b " drive it is boot drive with win8.1 new clean install from yesterday
' a " drive is my pictures , documents , and few programs data -backup drive,
all my data is backed up on Ubuntu server i made out of my old desktop pc few months ago.

thank you

[austin.texas]

as i mentioned before, if it is possible i would prefer to use " b " drive it is boot drive with win8.1 new clean install from yesterday

It would be a much simpler operation to use the other drive, instead of the SSD. The problem is that you are only allowed to create 4 primary partitions and your Windows drive already has 4 primary partitions, leaving no option for installing Mint. That behavior by your Windows installation is very annoying, and not being a Windows expert, I don't know the best way to deal with it. If you were able to delete the Recovery partition, or the msftres partition, you would be able to shrink the Windows partition to give you enough space to create Mint partitions, but I don't know what effect deleting those partitions would have on Windows. At this point, Windows creating 4 partitions for it's own use is a real problem regarding the installation of Mint to that drive.

Hopefully, someone who knows more about Windows will have an idea on that.
But, installation to the other drive is fairly simple and straightforward.