HD Partitioning for Dual Boot

[Aging Technogeek]

1. The 39 Mib partition is your boot sector. this stores the information needed to boot Vista. Leave it alone.

2.You want to concentrate on the partition labeled C: . This is the only partition you need to redo to install Mint or Ubuntu.

Before you begin the linux installation, run the Vista disk cleaner and defragment the disk at least once (twice is better).

The easiest method for someone new to Linux installation is to use the option "Guided- resize partition and use freed space". This allows you to allocate whatever space you want to Linux but does not allow you to designate specific partitions.

If you are going to manually partition, there are a few considerations.
First. There can be only 4 main partitions on one drive-either 4 primary or 3 primary and 1 extended.
Second. There can be a grand total of 15 partitions of all types ( primary, extended, and logical) on one drive.
The best way to manually install is to create logical partitions (This automatically creates the needed extended partition to contain the logical partitions). Once you open an extended partition, it stays open as long as all additional partitions are logical. Creating a primary partition closes the extended partition and you can't reopen it or open a new one.

If you want to control partition order and size, the first thing to do is resize the Vista partition to create some unallocated space. You can do this with Vista's Disk Manager utility or from the Mint live CD. From the Mint CD desktop, select Partition Editor from the mintMenu. Be extremely careful using this app, you could easily wipe your entire hard drive if you make a mistake. Highlight the Vista partition (C:) and click on the Partition heading at the top of the page. If most of the menu that appears is greyed out, click Unmount (you can't work on a mounted partition). Return to the Partition menu and select Resize/Move. A graphical representation of the C: partition wiil be shown. To resize the partition, just set your mouse pointer over the right side of the partition. When you are in the right spot the mouse pointer will change to a double headed arrow. Click and drag the end of te partition to resize to any dimension you wish.(One limitation- notice the colored section of the partition on the left. This is your Vista installation . Do not drag the partition wall into this space-you will disable or destroy Vista.). Click on the "Resize/Move button at the lower right and click on the green check mark when you get back to the main window. It may take quite a while to resize the partition so don't get impatient.

When the partition has been resized to your needs, return to the desktop an start the installer. When you get to the partitioning stage, select Manual and click Forward. In the partition diagram, click on "Unallocated Space" and click "New Partition" . Set your First partition the way youwant it and click "Okay" Wait until the partitioner redraws the tablre to show your new partition, click on the unallocated space and select "New Partition" to set your second partition. Continue until all partitions are set then click "Forward" to continue the installation.

Partition schemes

Mint (or Ubuntu ) doesn't need as much space as Windows. My normal partition table looks like this:

Swap min. 256 Mib max 2 Gib (Normally 2x ram up to 4 Gib total) Over 2 Gib ram you rarely need swap so a nominal 256 meg is okay. On laptops, if you want to use Hibernate, swap must at least equal ram.
/ (root) 8-12 Gib
/home 5+ Gib depending on your needs.

At the end of the installation procedure, the Grub bootloader is installed. It will detect Vista and automaticaly set up your dual boot menu.

[kansasnoob]

I personally recommend never resizing any Vista partition with anything but Vista's own tools as shown in this guide:

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista ... _first.htm

Where I do differ with the recommendations in that guide is where they begin the Ubuntu (Mint is based on Ubuntu) install. I would always go ahead and boot to the "live" desktop environment, then double click the install icon on the desktop. One reason for that is the occasional need to "reposition" windows during the installation procedure - if installing from the "live" environment and a window extends past the end of the screen you can "drag" the window either by holding down left mouse button while the pointer is on the title bar or by depressing the Alt key and then holding down the left mouse button while the pointer is on any blank area of the screen.

Anyway, once you've decided how much room to give Mint, and resized Vista to create the needed free space, you need to make the next decision: what layout do you want? If you want to go very simple you can simply choose Use largest continuous free space in step 5 of 8 and Mint's partitioner will automatically create a / partition and a SWAP partition on it's own. (This is what I'd recommend if you have no prior partitioning experience).

If you want to create a separate /home partition (which can be nice if you ever need to reinstall, but it's still no substitute for proper and frequent backups) I'd first create the proper size partitions using Gparted (aka: Partition Editor) from the Live desktop environment somewhat as shown here:

http://mywebsite.bigpond.net.au/dfelderh/p22.html

Of course you need to understand partitioning so look at the See Hard Drives and Partitions and Manual Partitioning pages here:

http://www.ginad.org.uk/Frameset.html

[professorsnapper]

I'm about to assist a friend to get Vista / Mint dualbooting on his new Toshiba laptop (similar specs to the abovementioned Dell), and was glad to find this post - thanks.

Further related questions:
1)Do the above suggested setups enable user documents to be accessed from within either Windows or Linux? (Sure, it's possible to import user documents & settings when installing linux, but how about maintaining a single home for user data which can be read by both OSes?)
2) If not, how simple is it to enable this, & would you recommend attempting this for someone with fair (but not yet extensive) computer savvy?

Thanks,
Snapper.

[Aging Technogeek]

professorsnapper,

1. To access data from both Windows and Mint, set up a separate data partition formatted as fat32. This is the standard Windows file format and Mint can access fat32 files without special programming. To mount this partition in Mint see 2.

2. Read this thread. It's a little long but it should answer your questions about mounting shared partitions.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... lder+mount

You will be more likely to get quick answers to your questions if you open a new thread rather than posting to an older one. The only reason you got this answer is that I am in the habit of checking threads I've posted to in case someone does post a new question. Most users of this forum don't do this - they are much more likely to respond to a new thread with no responses listed.

[Aging Technogeek]

When you set up a partition to be shared between Windows and Linux, the thing to remember is Linux will mount and read NTFS or fat32 partitions perfectly well but Windows will not even detect ext3 partitions without installing special software. So format your shared partition as NTFS or fat32.

As long as you are setting up an extended partition, why not include your / partition in it? You may find you need to do this anyway as I am not sure if the boot sector is counted as a primary partition. Plus. I always like to retain the option of using that last primary partition later if needed.

[Aging Technogeek]

Do not delete the utility partition because at least part of your Vista bootloader lives there. If you delete it, you will not be able to boot into Vista. Since you have a Vista recovery disk, if you must delete a partition, delete the 14 Gig recovery partition. This partition is basically a duplicate of your recovery disk.

Your second partition plan looks good. Just shrink your Vista partition to get the unallocated space you need to install Mint in an extended partition.

BTW You don't have to fill the entire drive at this time. You can leave some space unallocated for later expansion or addition of another Linux distro.

[professorsnapper]

professorsnapper,

1. To access data from both Windows and Mint, set up a separate data partition formatted as fat32. This is the standard Windows file format and Mint can access fat32 files without special programming. To mount this partition in Mint see 2.

2. Read this thread. It's a little long but it should answer your questions about mounting shared partitions.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... lder+mount

You will be more likely to get quick answers to your questions if you open a new thread rather than posting to an older one. The only reason you got this answer is that I am in the habit of checking threads I've posted to in case someone does post a new question. Most users of this forum don't do this - they are much more likely to respond to a new thread with no responses listed.

Hi Aging (I'm unsure of correct netiquette - would "Mr Technogeek" be more appropriate? )
Thanks - much appreciated. Will take your suggestions on board.

Have a great day!
Snapper.

[Aging Technogeek]

chulamami,

The only thing I would change is to increase the Vista partition to 75 Gig (Vista tends to be a drive hog. so it needs a lot of space) and trim the data partition to 75-80 Gig. You should not need more than 80 Gig for data unless you have a lot of music or videos to store. This will increase your unallocated space to about 60 Gig - enough for 3 or 4 more Linux installations.

[Aging Technogeek]

Everything looks good to go. Good luck installing and enjoy Mint.