Installation Partition question

[kafka75]

We got my sister a Compaq Computer running Windows 7. She wants to dual boot Mint 10. My dual boot with my Dell was straight forward so I put in the live DVD and then horror struck. How do I partition this without messing up anything? Thanks for your help I am still new at this.

[willie42]

It should work the same way as yours did. Put the CD in and install them side by side. But I tell everyone this no matter what you are doing maintain a good backup just in case. Hard Drives fail and sometimes things do go terribly wrong even without provocation.

[kafka75]

Thanks Willie for the quick response but the Installer does not allow me to just install side by side like it did with my Dell. It only gives me the advanced option or erase entire disk and install. Here is where I am stuck.

[pythagorean]

You boot into windows and you go to Start > Control Panel > System and Security and you will see Administrative Tools. One of the options will be "Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions" and you select that option. When it opens it will show you everything on the disk much like gparted does. You right click on the C: drive and select "shrink volume." This will very likely result in about 20 GB of Free space which you can then use for installing Linux.

[vrkalak]

For someone that is new to Linux, I usually give them this advise on partitioning.

If you are going to install Linux as the only OS ... then, install to the entire hard-drive.
No need to partition anything. Some Linux installers will automatically add a SWAP partition.
However, if you only have one OS installed ... there is no need for a SWAP partition.

If you are going to dual-boot, with Linux and Windows.
Open the Partition Editor and make 3 partitions - first.

Defrag Windows first. Back-up everything, you want, from Windows to an external USB or another computer - just in case.
Then, use the Linux OS's LiveCD feature and open the Partition Editor. Re-partition everything, before you install.
Reduce the size of the Windows OS to roughly half the size of the Hard-drive (or less, if you're not going to use it much)

Second, make a SWAP partition about twice the size of your RAM (unless you have 6Gb or more - then, the same size as the RAM)

Third, make a new partition for Linux in Ext.3 or Ext.4 (doesn't really matter, at this time) ... with what is left over (the larger part) after you have resized Windows and made the SWAP partition. This should be a majority of the hard-drive.
You're new to Linux ... no need to worry about making separate partitions for /home and such. That'll come later.

Then, using the LiveCD/DVD of the Linux OS - install the new OS.
Select to install 'side-by-side' and chose, the larger partition, you already made in Ext.3/4, as to where you want to install Linux.

Then, follow directions ... hopefully, the Linux install should be uneventful.
I have found this to be the easiest way to install a Linux OS.

[kafka75]

Ooops! I tried and it dual boots but now I have this. Sorry for the size of the picture. Which one can I delete or resize ext3 or ext4 . Thanks.