Something is wrong with my partitions

[waterlilies]

Version: 20.1
Architecture: 64-bit
Display Environment: Cinnamon

I have three 1 TB HDDs, one has Windows 10, one has my personal files and the third one I added recently to install Linux Mint.

I'm not a tech savvy person; I just wanted to try using Linux because Windows 10 has Internet connection problems for which I tried every solution possible (including deleting everything and reinstalling Windows) without success.

I went through the essential things that I should set up after the installation with the help of this post.

As recommended by that post, I wanted to create a partition to store snapshots:

"Preferably configure Timeshift to put its snapshots on a separate dedicated hard disk partition (20 GB is a workable and reasonable minimum size for that partition), so it won't eat disk space needed by your system."

First I went to 'Disk', looked at the disk where Linux was installed and it showed that I had:

Partition 1: FAT32(Bootable) 537 MB (0.2% full)
Partition 2: Extended, 1000 GB
Partition 5: Ext4, Linux, 1000 GB (3.4% full)

I felt a bit confused because it's a 1 TB HDD, so why do both Partition 2 and Partition 5 have 1 TB storage available?

I searched information about Linux partitions to understand this better and found this post, where I used 'sudo fdisk -l' to see what partitioning standard was being used. I got the following warnings (I assume they are warnings because the text was red):

"Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary."
^This was below the information about the disk where Linux was installed

I found this thread, and it seems this can be fixed with GParted.

"use Gparted to move the partition so that it starts at 4096-byte sector; setting the start boundary at 1 MiB is an easy way to do it."

I installed it, and just looked at what the disk with linux looks like:

/dev/sdb1: fat, /boot/efi, 512 MiB (1.04 MiB used)
▼/deb/sdb2: extended 931.01 GiB
/deb/sdb5: ext4, /,/run/tim..., 931.01 GiB (31.58 GiB used)

To sum this up:

1. Is is normal for the partitions to look like that? Will the misalignment be a problem?

2. If it's not a problem, then, how do I created the partition?

I was thinking of using this article as a guide to do it, but there, it shows a unallocated partition which is deleted to, i guess, make space for the new, smaller partition. There isn't anything like that in my Linux Mint HDD.

I have searched all of these things (about extended partitions, about how to create a new one, about the "Partition does not start on physical sector boundary.", etc), but it seems that other people's situations are different from mine (many threads are about creating a new 'home', 'swap', or 'boot' partition, which is not what I want to do), so I don't know what to do.

[decrepit]

As I understand it, you're allowed 4 primary partitions, after that you need an "extended" partition to house the extras.
The size of the extended partition is the sum of the partitions in it.
So for some reason you have an extended partition (sdb2), that you don't really need, with (sdb5) inside it. So they both are recording the same space

[JoeFootball]

As I understand it, you're allowed 4 primary partitions, after that you need an "extended" partition to house the extras.

If the disk leverages the MBR (a.k.a. msdos) partition table type. GPT will allow more than four primary partitions.

More info ...

https://www.howtogeek.com/193669/whats- ... g-a-drive/

https://www.howtogeek.com/184659/beginn ... explained/

[ricardogroetaers]

First I went to 'Disk', looked at the disk where Linux was installed and it showed that I had:

Partition 1: FAT32(Bootable) 537 MB (0.2% full)
Partition 2: Extended, 1000 GB
Partition 5: Ext4, Linux, 1000 GB (3.4% full)

I felt a bit confused because it's a 1 TB HDD, so why do both Partition 2 and Partition 5 have 1 TB storage available?

Lighter than water.
If you wish, watch the disc with the "Disks" and "Gparted" programs, but it is not necessary.

The partitioning is MBR (also called msdos).

-A primary bootable partition.
It exists because the system partition is a logical partition within the extended partition. Or because it is a UEFI machine operating in UEFI mode (not BIOS).

-An extended partition (1000 GB), which is just a box (container) that can have logical partitions inside it.

-A logical partition within the extended partition, occupying all available space (1000 GB).

It is not, in my opinion, the best way to partition an MBR disk on a BIOS or UEFI machine, but .......

[greenpossum]

Others have explained what the legacy MBR extended partition means. The filesystem block alignment issue affects HDD performance.

I went through the essential things that I should set up after the installation with the help of this post.

The link above "10 Things to Do First in Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon" refers to post-installation actions. Let's step back to the actual installation of linux. Why is that drive formatted legacy MBR/BIOS? It would be beneficial to know the history of that drive. i.e. Did the drive originate from another PC and what actions did you perform to prepare the drive for the linux install if any? When was the drive last formatted?

Post the output of the commands below as it would be helpful to know how the other drives have been formatted.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxxxrz
sudo blkid
sudo fdisk -l

[AndyMH]

You have done an erase and install on a legacy boot system. It creates a useless EFI partition and then stuffs everything else into an extended partition.
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=326270&p=1855497&h ... y#p1855497
Note - there is nothing wrong with legacy boot, I have it on all my laptops.

[waterlilies]

As I understand it, you're allowed 4 primary partitions, after that you need an "extended" partition to house the extras.
The size of the extended partition is the sum of the partitions in it.
So for some reason you have an extended partition (sdb2), that you don't really need, with (sdb5) inside it. So they both are recording the same space

I see, but I don't know why this happened.

Lighter than water.
If you wish, watch the disc with the "Disks" and "Gparted" programs, but it is not necessary.

The partitioning is MBR (also called msdos).

-A primary bootable partition.
It exists because the system partition is a logical partition within the extended partition. Or because it is a UEFI machine operating in UEFI mode (not BIOS).

-An extended partition (1000 GB), which is just a box (container) that can have logical partitions inside it.

-A logical partition within the extended partition, occupying all available space (1000 GB).

It is not, in my opinion, the best way to partition an MBR disk on a BIOS or UEFI machine, but .......

When I installed Linux Mint, I unplugged the sata cables from the other two disks, and only left the one connecting to the empty disk where I wanted to install Linux Mint. I didn't want to make any mistakes selecting the disks, I don't know why it ended up like that.

Others have explained what the legacy MBR extended partition means. The filesystem block alignment issue affects HDD performance.

I went through the essential things that I should set up after the installation with the help of this post.

The link above "10 Things to Do First in Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon" refers to post-installation actions. Let's step back to the actual installation of linux. Why is that drive formatted legacy MBR/BIOS? It would be beneficial to know the history of that drive. i.e. Did the drive originate from another PC and what actions did you perform to prepare the drive for the linux install if any? When was the drive last formatted?

Post the output of the commands below as it would be helpful to know how the other drives have been formatted.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxxxrz
sudo blkid
sudo fdisk -l

Before installing, I found out my motherboard does not support UEFI. As for the disk, it was new and empty. I guess I should have asked here before before trying to install it

This is the output of the first line:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-65-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 4.8.6 wm: muffin 4.8.1 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: M5A78L-M PLUS/USB3 v: Rev X.0x 
  serial: <filter> BIOS: American Megatrends v: 0502 date: 11/18/2016 
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech M215 serial: <filter> 
  charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:
  Topology: 8-Core model: AMD FX-8300 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Bulldozer 
  L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
  flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 53043 
  Speed: 1444 MHz min/max: 1400/3300 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 
  1: 1465 2: 1838 3: 1405 4: 1402 5: 1401 6: 1406 7: 1404 8: 1402 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] vendor: ASUSTeK 
  driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1c82 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: NV137 v: 4.3 Mesa 20.2.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:14.2 chip ID: 1002:4383 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP107GL High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0fb9 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-65-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8192EE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter 
  driver: rtl8192ee v: kernel port: d800 bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:818b 
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: ASUSTeK driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e800 bus ID: 05:00.0 
  chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: enp5s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.73 TiB used: 10.56 GiB (0.4%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Toshiba model: DT01ACA100 size: 931.51 GiB 
  speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: A8A0 scheme: MBR 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST1000DM010-2EP102 size: 931.51 GiB 
  speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: CC43 scheme: MBR 
  ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Seagate model: ST1000DM010-2EP102 size: 931.51 GiB 
  speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: CC43 scheme: GPT 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 915.40 GiB used: 10.56 GiB (1.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb5 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 23.4 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 33 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nouveau fan: 0 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb https://linuxmint-packages.mirror.liteserver.nl ulyssa main upstream import backport
  2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:
  Processes: 247 Uptime: 19m Memory: 15.62 GiB used: 1.50 GiB (9.6%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38

Second line:

Code: Select all

/dev/sdc2: LABEL="Stuff" UUID="12B44ED0B44EB64F" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="7e49880e-a496-406f-8eb0-c3eedddac0ba"
/dev/sda1: LABEL="System Reserved" UUID="9624E43724E41C4D" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="6a634646-01"
/dev/sda2: UUID="9CAEE767AEE73882" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="6a634646-02"
/dev/sda3: UUID="F2F0FB58F0FB2191" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="6a634646-03"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="E913-A367" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="f3ec6311-01"
/dev/sdb5: UUID="e8e9811e-1719-4107-bc46-840a52af55a3" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="f3ec6311-05"
/dev/sdc1: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="6425defc-b10f-4e3f-bc74-7473a3ca035d"

Third line:

Code: Select all

Disk /dev/sdc: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: ST1000DM010-2EP1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: B5F255A7-094A-4C49-B905-8F271CBF3FAD

Device     Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sdc1     34      32767      32734    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sdc2  32768 1953521663 1953488896 931.5G Microsoft basic data

Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.


Disk /dev/sda: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: TOSHIBA DT01ACA1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x6a634646

Device     Boot      Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *          2048    1126399    1124352   549M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          1126400 1952449756 1951323357 930.5G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       1952450560 1953519615    1069056   522M 27 Hidden NTFS WinRE


Disk /dev/sdb: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: ST1000DM010-2EP1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xf3ec6311

Device     Boot   Start        End    Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1  *       2048    1050623    1048576  512M  b W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb2       1052670 1953523711 1952471042  931G  5 Extended
/dev/sdb5       1052672 1953523711 1952471040  931G 83 Linux

Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.

You have done an erase and install on a legacy boot system. It creates a useless EFI partition and then stuffs everything else into an extended partition.
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=326270&p=1855497&h ... y#p1855497
Note - there is nothing wrong with legacy boot, I have it on all my laptops.

My motherboard is ASUS M5A78L-M PLUS/USB3, which, from my search results, does not support UEFI. When I researched how to install Linux, all the information I found was for computers that had UEFI, so I didn't know what to do.

Before the installation, I unplugged the sata cables from the other two disks, and only left the one connecting to the empty disk where I wanted to install Linux Mint. I thought that would be all right, I guess I was wrong

[JerryF]

In the future, please use the </> tag button instead of the inline c tag button. Makes it easier to read like I did to your output as an example. Thanks.

This is the output of the first line:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-65-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 4.8.6 wm: muffin 4.8.1 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: M5A78L-M PLUS/USB3 v: Rev X.0x 
  serial: <filter> BIOS: American Megatrends v: 0502 date: 11/18/2016 
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech M215 serial: <filter> 
  charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:
  Topology: 8-Core model: AMD FX-8300 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Bulldozer 
  L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
  flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 53043 
  Speed: 1444 MHz min/max: 1400/3300 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 
  1: 1465 2: 1838 3: 1405 4: 1402 5: 1401 6: 1406 7: 1404 8: 1402 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] vendor: ASUSTeK 
  driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1c82 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: NV137 v: 4.3 Mesa 20.2.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:14.2 chip ID: 1002:4383 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP107GL High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0fb9 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-65-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8192EE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter 
  driver: rtl8192ee v: kernel port: d800 bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:818b 
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: ASUSTeK driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e800 bus ID: 05:00.0 
  chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: enp5s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.73 TiB used: 10.56 GiB (0.4%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Toshiba model: DT01ACA100 size: 931.51 GiB 
  speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: A8A0 scheme: MBR 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST1000DM010-2EP102 size: 931.51 GiB 
  speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: CC43 scheme: MBR 
  ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Seagate model: ST1000DM010-2EP102 size: 931.51 GiB 
  speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> rev: CC43 scheme: GPT 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 915.40 GiB used: 10.56 GiB (1.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb5 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 23.4 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 33 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nouveau fan: 0 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb https://linuxmint-packages.mirror.liteserver.nl ulyssa main upstream import backport
  2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:
  Processes: 247 Uptime: 19m Memory: 15.62 GiB used: 1.50 GiB (9.6%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38

Second line:

Code: Select all

/dev/sdc2: LABEL="Stuff" UUID="12B44ED0B44EB64F" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="7e49880e-a496-406f-8eb0-c3eedddac0ba"
/dev/sda1: LABEL="System Reserved" UUID="9624E43724E41C4D" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="6a634646-01"
/dev/sda2: UUID="9CAEE767AEE73882" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="6a634646-02"
/dev/sda3: UUID="F2F0FB58F0FB2191" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="6a634646-03"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="E913-A367" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="f3ec6311-01"
/dev/sdb5: UUID="e8e9811e-1719-4107-bc46-840a52af55a3" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="f3ec6311-05"
/dev/sdc1: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="6425defc-b10f-4e3f-bc74-7473a3ca035d"

Third line:

Code: Select all

Disk /dev/sdc: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: ST1000DM010-2EP1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: B5F255A7-094A-4C49-B905-8F271CBF3FAD

Device     Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sdc1     34      32767      32734    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sdc2  32768 1953521663 1953488896 931.5G Microsoft basic data

Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.


Disk /dev/sda: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: TOSHIBA DT01ACA1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x6a634646

Device     Boot      Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *          2048    1126399    1124352   549M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          1126400 1952449756 1951323357 930.5G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       1952450560 1953519615    1069056   522M 27 Hidden NTFS WinRE


Disk /dev/sdb: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: ST1000DM010-2EP1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xf3ec6311

Device     Boot   Start        End    Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1  *       2048    1050623    1048576  512M  b W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb2       1052670 1953523711 1952471042  931G  5 Extended
/dev/sdb5       1052672 1953523711 1952471040  931G 83 Linux

Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.

[waterlilies]

In the future, please use the </> tag button instead of the inline c tag button. Makes it easier to read like I did to your output as an example. Thanks.

Ohh so that's why it looked strange
I corrected it, thank you!

[AndyMH]

Now I can read it!

My motherboard is ASUS M5A78L-M PLUS/USB3, which, from my search results, does not support UEFI. When I researched how to install Linux, all the information I found was for computers that had UEFI, so I didn't know what to do.

Before the installation, I unplugged the sata cables from the other two disks, and only left the one connecting to the empty disk where I wanted to install Linux Mint. I thought that would be all right, I guess I was wrong

No looks okay, looks like mint installed on sdb with win on sda, with sdc as a data drive? As far as I can tell the MS reserved partition on sdc1 is redundant, but I wouldn't bother about it.

Both sda and sdb have msdos (legacy) partition tables which is what you would expect with legacy boot. sdc has a gpt partition table, I'd have put a legacy partition on it (just for consistency), but again it's okay.

I also wouldn't worry about "Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary" on sdb2 (your extended partition). I've had that in the past, and you are supposed to take a slight performance hit, but can't say I've noticed. If gparted can fix it (I never bothered), you would need to boot from your install media and run the copy of gparted on that because you can't change a mounted partition and you can't unmount / when booting normally.

The pedant in me would say re-install to get rid of the useless EFI partition and the extended partition, but you're okay.

Because you unplugged the other drives before installing mint (not necessary, but sensible when you are just starting), you won't be getting the grub menu giving you the choice of booting mint or win. With the other drives plugged in, in a terminal sudo update-grub. It should find win and give you the choice on the next boot.

If it is booting into win with sda attached, just go into BIOS and put sdc at the top of the boot list (the drives are likely to be listed as HDD0, HDD1, etc.).

[waterlilies]

No looks okay, looks like mint installed on sdb with win on sda, with sdc as a data drive? As far as I can tell the MS reserved partition on sdc1 is redundant, but I wouldn't bother about it.

Yes, sda is Windows 10, sdb is Linux and sdc is where my personal files are.

Both sda and sdb have msdos (legacy) partition tables which is what you would expect with legacy boot. sdc has a gpt partition table, I'd have put a legacy partition on it (just for consistency), but again it's okay.

You mean like format the disk and choose MBR?

I also wouldn't worry about "Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary" on sdb2 (your extended partition). I've had that in the past, and you are supposed to take a slight performance hit, but can't say I've noticed. If gparted can fix it (I never bothered), you would need to boot from your install media and run the copy of gparted on that because you can't change a mounted partition and you can't unmount / when booting normally.

The pedant in me would say re-install to get rid of the useless EFI partition and the extended partition, but you're okay.

I reinstalled it, (without cleaning the disk), and it was the same. Should I wipe it out first then and try again? I didn't do much there, so I don't mind reinstalling.

Because you unplugged the other drives before installing mint (not necessary, but sensible when you are just starting), you won't be getting the grub menu giving you the choice of booting mint or win. With the other drives plugged in, in a terminal sudo update-grub. It should find win and give you the choice on the next boot.

Yes, I didn't that GRUB menu thing, but after a quick search I found that it was "hidden", and changed it.

If it is booting into win with sda attached, just go into BIOS and put sdc at the top of the boot list (the drives are likely to be listed as HDD0, HDD1, etc.).

That also happened (booting into Windows without letting me choose), but I already did as you said, since I already knew about changing the booting order from when I was trying to install Linux.

[greenpossum]

It appears that ASUS released a MB model M5A78L-M (not UEFI) in 2011. I think the M5A78L-M PLUS was released 2016 and has UEFI firmware.
The inxi info gives the PC's BIOS release date as 2016. UEFI is also confirmed by your data disk HDD (2) being UEFI/GPT formatted.

Your Windows boot drive has no partition alignment problems so you should aim for the same efficiency with your linux system.

Toshiba 1TB HDD (1)
Your windows boot disk is clean - no partition alignment problems.
MBR / CSM - it appears that Windows was installed in MBR / CSM (BIOS) legacy mode.

Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD (2)
GPT / NTFS (windows data?)
No partition alignment problems with the 931 GiB NTFS partition.

Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD (3)
MBR / CSM (intended to be linux boot disk)

As others have said, there's nothing wrong with using the legacy boot/disk-format on a UEFI capable PC if it meets your needs.

Reformat and install
1. Boot the LM 20.1 live USB
2. Start GParted (Menu-> Admin-> GParted) and reformat as legacy MBR. Be careful not to reformat the wrong drive.

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1. Select the linux boot drive HDD (3) from the top right selection box.
2. Reformat: Select Device -> Create Partition Table - choose partition table type = msdos  

3. Confirm the drive is MBR.

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Select View->Device Information - it should display Partition Table = "msdos".

4. Confirm that the LM live USB has been booted in CSM (legacy BIOS mode)

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test -d /sys/firmware/efi && echo "UEFI mode" || echo "Legacy BIOS mode"

5. Proceed to install linux mint - allow the installer to create all necessary partitions.
Decide how large you want the linux partition to be. I think you mentioned that you want to leave some unallocated space on the drive to allow you to create other partitions such as an ext4 partition for your Timeshift snapshots.

NB1: If you physically disconnect the Windows Boot drive then the installer/Grub will not be able to include an entry for Windows in the boot menu.
If you want to include it in the Grub Menu at a later time.
1. Boot your PC then invoke the Linux System Recovery menu from the Grub Boot menu. See here: viewtopic.php?p=1777782#p1777782
2. Select "Grub - update Grub bootloader"

NB2: Nvidia hardware can create linux installation problems because Nvidia's drivers are not included in the linux kernel.
Be sure to read the Linux Mint Installation Guide if you haven't already done so.

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Device-1: NVIDIA GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] vendor: ASUSTeK

[AndyMH]

5. Proceed to install linux mint - allow the installer to create all necessary partitions.

Mint was previously installed on sdb, with 'erase and install' I think the installer may put grub on sda if the win drive is still attached - don't think the OP wants this. Could be wrong, I always do 'something else'.

Note - the installer will still create a useless EFI partition and put / in an extended partition. The only way to avoid this is do it yourself, installing with 'something else'.

[waterlilies]

It appears that ASUS released a MB model M5A78L-M (not UEFI) in 2011. I think the M5A78L-M PLUS was released 2016 and has UEFI firmware.
The inxi info gives the PC's BIOS release date as 2016. UEFI is also confirmed by your data disk HDD (2) being UEFI/GPT formatted.

You are right, I looked for the manual, and it had a QR code to download a PDF with more information about the BIOS and it does say "UEFI BIOS"

5. Proceed to install linux mint - allow the installer to create all necessary partitions.

Mint was previously installed on sdb, with 'erase and install' I think the installer may put grub on sda if the win drive is still attached - don't think the OP wants this. Could be wrong, I always do 'something else'.

Note - the installer will still create a useless EFI partition and put / in an extended partition. The only way to avoid this is do it yourself, installing with 'something else'.

I found this video but it only shows how to create a partition for root; but how much space should it be assigned? Do I not also have to create a home directory? In this thread I see 25GB is recommended for root, but here it recommends 100GB

[AndyMH]

I found this video but it only shows how to create a partition for root; but how much space should it be assigned? Do I not also have to create a home directory? In this thread I see 25GB is recommended for root, but here it recommends 100GB

You don't have to have a separate /home partition, you can have a single partition for mint where /home is just another folder in /. It is the simplest install. I do have a separate /home partition, it makes it easy to do a fresh install on a major upgrade, e.g. LM20 to LM21 (not LM20.0 to LM20.1 - this is a minor upgrade and you just do it through the update manager). But... there are others on the forum who think a separate /home partition is a waste of time. This is what my system drive looks like:

With a separate /home partition, 25GB is a little on the small side for a / partition and 100GB is well over the top. Note gparted shows sizes in GiB not GB.

I've got a swap partition, you don't need one with LM19 and LM20 (unless you intend to hibernate). I've only got one because I've always had one.

If you do decide you want a separate /home partition you will need to create your partitions first using gparted (it is on your mint install media) and then install mint with the 'something else' option.

If you do go for a separate /home partition DO NOT use timeshift with its defaults - it saves snapshots to /timeshift, which is a quick way of filling up your / partition = no boot. Save snapshots to another drive or partition (must be formatted ext4).

[greenpossum]

allow the installer to create all necessary partitions

I meant to have the installer create the partitions as opposed to creating the partitions outside of the installer (pre-installation) using GParted, and then pointing the installer to them.

the installer will still create a useless EFI partition

There's nothing wrong with the installer. It creates a 512MB FAT32 partition to store bootloaders and various system repair/utility programs etc.

I'm not a tech savvy person;

If the 'something else' installer options are beyond your knowledge of Linux partitioning then I suggest you follow the steps I provided above, then use GParted to shrink the linux ext4 partiton post-installation to create unallocated space for your data partitions etc.

Here are the steps:

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1. Boot the LM 20.1 live USB
2. Start GParted 
	1. Select the linux drive HDD (3) from the top right selection box
	2. Select the linux ext4 partition then right click -> Move/Resize
	From the options:
	Leave 'free space preceeding' = 0
	Set 'free space following' = 500000

Once the resizing operation starts, it may take some time to complete. Under no circumstances abort the operation or shutdown the computer while the operation is in progress.

This will provide 500GB of unallocated/free space, alternately adjust the value of'free space following' to your liking.

[AndyMH]

There's nothing wrong with the installer. It creates a 512MB FAT32 partition to store bootloaders and various system repair/utility programs etc.

Wrong, there is nothing in the 'EFI' partition.
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=326270&p=1855497&h ... y#p1855497

[waterlilies]

You don't have to have a separate /home partition, you can have a single partition for mint where /home is just another folder in /. It is the simplest install.
If you do decide you want a separate /home partition you will need to create your partitions first using gparted (it is on your mint install media) and then install mint with the 'something else' option.

So, I just do the install like in the video, right? I just create a partition for /
If so, how much space should it occupy? should I let it occupy almost the whole HDD and leave 20GB, to later create a partition for snapshots?

If I format the disk that has my personal files and change to MBR, would it then be alright to keep using it like that in Linux, rather than using home?

[AndyMH]

I just create a partition for /

Yes

should I let it occupy almost the whole HDD and leave 20GB, to later create a partition for snapshots?

You can make it as big as you want, normally I'd use the whole drive. Snapshots - separate partition is good, but the snapshots partition needs to be about 60GB. The better solution, if you have the space, is to create an ext4 partition on sdc (your data drive*) for your timeshift snapshots. That way if your linux drive dies, you still have the snapshots. You can shrink sdc2 (Stuff) with gparted. As you did with sdc2 (labelled 'Stuff'), it is always a good idea to add labels when you create partitions.

If I format the disk that has my personal files and change to MBR, would it then be alright to keep using it like that in Linux, rather than using home?

Yes, you can change to legacy/MBR if you want, I wouldn't bother, nothing wrong with it as it is. Just carry on using it as you do at the moment. As setup it will be mounting in /media/you/Stuff and it will appear in your devices panel on the left in your file manager. Once you are up and running with your new setup it might be more useful to mount it somewhere like /home/you/Stuff so it is just another folder in home**. But, get the current setup sorted first and then ask how to do that.

* you do have a backup system in place to backup your data, don't you?

** back when I used win, I always had a C: and D: with all my files on D:. Made for easier data backups. When I started with mint, I dual booted and mounted win D: as /home/andy/data, making it very easy to share files across the two OS. It also meant that the backups I did in linux of home took care of the shared data as well. I have a dedicated backup drive in all my PCs, it is used only for backup. I use backintime (there are others) to take snapshots of /home. Works the same way and is complementary to timeshift.

[waterlilies]

Reformat and install

I formatted the disk as you said, and then re-installed linux as AndyMH said and it worked. Thank you!

Yes, you can change to legacy/MBR if you want, I wouldn't bother, nothing wrong with it as it is.

I will leave it as it is, then

you do have a backup system in place to backup your data, don't you?

Not really, I just copy my personal files to an external hdd once in while

back when I used win, I always had a C: and D: with all my files on D:

Yes, 'Stuff' is my D: drive in Windows

Once you are up and running with your new setup it might be more useful to mount it somewhere like /home/you/Stuff so it is just another folder in home. But, get the current setup sorted first and then ask how to do that.

So now, how do I do that?