Tutorial: Install in Legacy mode to GPT Partitions

[austin.texas]

Tutorial: Install in Legacy mode to GPT Partitions
TUTORIAL En Español

If you have Windows installed on a GPT partitioned drive, and you want to dual-boot, do not use this tutorial.
Mint should be installed in UEFI mode, in that case, not in Legacy mode.
If you are installing Mint without dual-booting with Windows, this tutorial will show you how.

GPT partitioning allows you to make up to 128 primary partitions, by default. So it is more versatile, (and more stable), than msdos partitioning, which is limited to 4 primary partitions.

PREPARATION:
The change from msdos to GPT partitioning will delete all existing partitions on the drive.
BACKUP EVERYTHING that you want to keep!

To change your hard drive from msdos partitioning to GPT:

• boot your live Mint DVD or USB
• open the Gparted program: Menu > Administration > Gparted
• in Gparted, select your hard drive from the drop-down list at the top right.
• if there is a swap partition on the drive, right-click on the swap partition > swapoff
• delete all existing partitions on the drive
• open the Device menu in Gparted > Create Partition Table > gpt > APPLY

Now you can create your partitions. The first partition created should be a bios_grub partition. Since GPT partitioning has no traditional MBR, the bios_grub partition provides a place for Grub to store the bootloader information that would normally be stored in the MBR.
NOTE: the bootloader (Grub) will be installed to the drive, not to the partition.

CREATING A bios_grub PARTITION:

• In Gparted, right-click on the unallocated space on the drive > New
• Size: 1 MiB (that is MiB, not GiB) (It can be bigger, if you want... I have one that is 4 MiB)
• File System: unformatted

  

• click the APPLY button
• after the partition is created, right-click on it > Manage flags > check "bios_grub" > APPLY

[austin.texas]

CREATING THE OTHER PARTITIONS:
Personally, I like to create the swap partition next, just to get that detail done...

You can then create the rest of your partitions in the normal way. If you plan to dual-boot more than one linux distribution, create more than one root partition of 20 to 30GB.

You can see that I have more than one OS installed (with an unused 30GB partition ready for Mint 18 - when that is released, soon. )

When you make the final partition, leave 1 MB free (unallocated) at the end of the drive. This area is used by GPT partitioning to store a backup copy of the partition table.

[austin.texas]

INSTALLING MINT:
You can then install Mint using the partitions you created, by chosing the "Something Else" option in the installation program.

IMPORTANT: the "Device for bootloader location" is /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1. (assuming that your drive is sda, not sdb)

More details on installing: Installation tutorial by xenopeek

Forum rules:
Please don't add support questions to tutorials, start your own thread in the appropriate sub-forum instead.