Installing L Mint 7 on new laptop running Vista

[spnoe]

I have installed Linux flavours before but am confused by my new laptop partitions. The question is on which partition should I install Linux Mint 7.

dev/sd1 (Blue box) Windows Vista (loader) 9.8 GB (yellow box) dev/sd2 Windows Vista (loader) 142.7 GB (pink Box) dev/sd3 Microsoft Windows XP Embedded142.7 and also alongside this is another blue box which just says 3GB.

I am a simple person so a simple answer would be great.

Thanks for any help offered.

Steve

[william]

I have Vista too and there is an XP label in one of my partitions...I don't think he has XP.

Assuming you are trying to dual-boot, follow the instructions in the below link to create space for Mint from your Vista 143GB partition:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows- ... -problems/ (you don't need to go below the 'Using Linux to Resize' heading as you will have Mint create your partitions) - looks like a lot but it is not bad really!

After you create the free space, you will install Mint there.

-Note: Do not choose 'side-by-side' install method after you start the Mint install, best bet is to choose manual so you can designate your partitions (swap, /, /home or /data, etc...) and the size of the partitions
-Note2: If you do not want the Mint booter (Grub) to take over the Vista booter, download and install EasyBCD and follow instructions at below links:
http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Linux or http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Ubuntu

If any questions, just ask.