installing on new PC without any other OS

[andrewwest]

Hi

Noobie install question:

I have Mint on a knackered old PC and i'm thinking of buying a new PC as i like Mint alot.

In idiot speak with no garble please can someone explain what i need to do to install on a fresh hard drive so all i have is Mint.

Do i need to set up partitions etc or can it go straight on by clicking install?

Many thanks in advance.

[yamawho]

You should be able without issues.
Concerning the partitions, there should be an option to install and use the whole hdd.

[muskratmx]

This is a personal question that only you can answer.

You need to ask your self...
Is this going to be the only OS I install?
Might I want to play with other distros of linux or versions of linux Mint?

I would ask you how big is the drive?
You don't need more than 15 to 20 GB for the /(root) partion of a normal Linux desktop install, unless you plan to compile and work on software. If it was mine with a drive bigger than 60gb I'd do at least three partions, Swap, /(root), and /home. For this reason having /home seperate makes for upgrades easier you could reinstall the system and not lose all your personal setting and data.

The /home needs is very personal. I don't need much over 20gb. My dad needs several hundred because he's always editing vidios. Lets say your need are 40gb for /home and you have a 120gb drive, and 1gb memory. You could set up 3 primary partions each at 20gb, then go into extended and set up your swap of 2gb leaving somewhere around 58gb for /home. With this you could install 3 different Linux Distros using /home for each.

Most of the automatic partioning done by install scripts do a very poor job. It'd pay to do it yourself. You can do it at the time of install or do it in advance with a live CD and gparted.

[andywest]

muskratmx :

My intentions are to use the machine as my main home system. I don't do any programming but just the usual lite office, email and surfing. I have a fairly new laptop with XP if i need to do anything thats not available to do on Mint but i hate using the ketboard so was thinking of getting another PC anyway. I really don't want to give Mr Gates any more of my money and someone pointed me towards Linux based Operating systems.

I think i would partition the HDD but probably only split in 2 as it will as said only be used for basic computing. I want to keep things as simple as possibe too. You talk about partitionin to a SWAP area, whats that for?

Cheers

Andy

[yamawho]

A swap file is like a page file in windows.
Basically it used when the ram is full and it dumps it on to the hdd.

Don't worry so much

You don't have anything on that hdd anyways.
Just to test 20GB is fine but if you will be using it for downloading, your going to need more room.

[muskratmx]

Ok to answer your original post. If I understaand you correctly, Your going to purchase a new laptop and then want to install Linux Mint. Right?

Ok; just boot the laptop with the live CD, click the install icon on the desktop. When you get to partitioning, your choices are, #1 use the whole drive = which will wipe out the factory install of windoz, #2 use empty space = which will install linux and windoz as co-operating systems, #3 manual = which is what I do but is harder. You must know what your doing.

Mind you they might not be labeled that way but those are your choices.

If your like me, and want King Billy gone altogether, choice "use the whole drive" Mint will then repartition building your swap partition and all for you, but you won't have windoze any more.

If you want windows there for a maybe day such as this laptop I'm using now, choose the use "empty space" once again mint will do it for you, resizing your windows partition, building your linux partitions, encluding swap and you'll have a dual booting system. Linux and Windows!

The manual partioning is for when you want to do other exotic things. Such as triple boot, or have special partition for other projects and so on. But all linux systems should build a swap using the auto method. I only had one install that didn't.

I hope that answers your questions.

As a further note. Most new laptops come with such big drives, and knowing linux users as I do. I'd sudjest using the manual method, especially if your planning on wiping King Billy off the map. (Using the whole drive). My reason is. I'm not sure about Linux Mint, but most of these distros install /home on the same partition as /(root). And when it comes time for a reinstall that creates a problem. You ether got to backup or lose data, maybe both.

For example lets say your new laptop comes with a 80gb drive. The "use whole drive" option normally will give you a swap partion double your memory size. Say 2gb. Then the rest will be /(root). Which is fine, except when you need to reinstall all your data is on that partition, and it will be formatted. Where as if you build your own manually, you can build a swap of 2gb and a /(root) of 20gb, (there is no real need for more space in your case), then use the remainder for /home. Which gives you the protection of when the day comes to reinstall, (and that day will come believe me, not from need but rather from want), your data will be seperate from the system. And won't get reformated. it just makes life easier.