What boot option should I choose?

[childofthetao]

Here is what I want to do. I want to resize my windows partition (on a computer with no installed linux) so that I have about 8gb of unpartitioned space. After that I would boot into the livedvd but what install option would I choose to get mint to create it's partitions on the unparitioned space I created?

Thanks

[AlbertP]

Just boot Mint the normal way (or compatibility mode when normal boot fails).

In the menu, you can find the GParted partitioning program. With that program, you can resize your Windows partition.

After resizing, open the installer (icon on the desktop). In the installer, after setting up things like language and keyboard layout, select 'Install next to other OS' or 'Install next to Windows'. This will install in the unallocated space on the disk.

[childofthetao]

Thanks.

What do you think is the least amount of space mint could run on?

[AlbertP]

4GB + the size of your RAM memory should be OK. With that amount of disk space the normal installer still runs, with less space you might get it working with the advanced install but this is not recommended (you can't install much programs on Mint that way). If you want to install some programs and put some documents on the Mint partition, I'd suggest using more free space.

Just use as much space as possible without getting into disk space problems with Windows.