Which partitions belong to Windows 7?

Joshual1177 · Post by **Joshual1177** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 10:39 am

So I am dual booting Windows 7 and Linux Mint 17.1 MATE. When I installed MATE, I let the installer partition my hard drive for me. I am now thinking I want to install Cinnamon and replace MATE and still be able to dual boot into Windows. How would I know which partitions belong to Windows so I don't lose any data?

What would be the steps to take to install and replace MATE with Cinnamon? Would I just boot from the Cinnamon live USB and choose other options to manually partition my hard drive?

I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

Post by **Pierre** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 10:50 am

the MATE and Cinnamon are both DEs - so simply install the Cinnamon environment,
- from synaptic

- you don't have to re-install the Mint O/S at all.

Buzzsaw · Post by **Buzzsaw** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 11:20 am

How would I know which partitions belong to Windows so I don't lose any data?

By posting the output of sudo parted -l and then someone here telling you.

nerdtron · Post by **nerdtron** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 12:28 pm

Joshual1177 wrote: What would be the steps to take to install and replace MATE with Cinnamon? Would I just boot from the Cinnamon live USB and choose other options to manually partition my hard drive?

I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

Boot into the Cinnamon Live CD, when installing, choose the "Something Else" option which will lead you to the manual partitioning screen.

You'll see there all you partitions, more importantly, one partition will be ext4 and another small one (probably the size of your ram) will be swap.

Click the ext4 partition and click change. Set it as ext4, mount point as "/" and format it. Click the swap partition and set it as swap just to make sure).

On the lower part of the partitioner, there is an option for boot loader installation be sure it says there /dev/sda or /dev/sdb and NOT /dev/sda1 or/dev/sdb.

You can now proceed with the installation replacing MATE with Cinnamon.
If you are not still sure, post the screenshot here and we'll tell you if it is correct.

Joshual1177 · Post by **Joshual1177** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 1:59 pm

Pierre wrote:the MATE and Cinnamon are both DEs - so simply install the Cinnamon environment,
- from synaptic

- you don't have to re-install the Mint O/S at all.

Really? That's it?

Buzzsaw · Post by **Buzzsaw** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 2:29 pm

I advise that you don't install Cinnamon over the top of MATE. Having more than one desktop installed simultaneously often results in duplicate programs and other difficulties.

Joshual1177 · Post by **Joshual1177** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 2:44 pm

Buzzsaw wrote:I advise that you don't install Cinnamon over the top of MATE. Having more than one desktop installed simultaneously often results in duplicate programs and other difficulties.

Ok thanks.

Joshual1177 · Post by **Joshual1177** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 2:57 pm

Buzzsaw wrote:
How would I know which partitions belong to Windows so I don't lose any data?
By posting the output of sudo parted -l and then someone here telling you.

Here are my partitions:

[img]http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/12 ... 2d67dd.jpg[/img]

I would like to know which ones I can format and install Mint Cinnamon to.

nerdtron · Post by **nerdtron** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 3:18 pm

The two partitions on the bottom. the 100GB ext4 partition and the 2GB swap partition.

See my previous reply when your are already on the "Something Else" of the Mint Installer.

Joshual1177 · Post by **Joshual1177** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 3:35 pm

[img]http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/12 ... 46da2c.jpg[/img]

The one highlighted is where Linux mint is installed?

/dev/sda5 would be where the OS would be installed?
/dev/sda6 would be the new Linux swap?

nerdtron · Post by **nerdtron** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 3:38 pm

The one highlighted (/dev/sda4) is the extended partition partition which breaks into two logical patitions:

/dev/sda5 - Mint partition
/dev/sda6 - swap

Joshual1177 · Post by **Joshual1177** » Sat Dec 06, 2014 2:46 pm

Installing.....[img]http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/12 ... 18e96a.jpg[/img]

Joshual1177 · Post by **Joshual1177** » Sun Dec 07, 2014 2:30 pm

I installed Cinnamon and I have to say that it is noticeably slower than MATE. My pc has only 2 GB RAM. But it is more beautiful and easy to customize than MATE.

Joshual1177 · Post by **Joshual1177** » Tue Dec 09, 2014 11:59 am

I switched over to Mint 17 XFCE. The main reason I am using Linux Mint is so that I am able to stream videos smoothly. Videos are too slow and not smooth on Win 7. But with XFCE and MATE I can watch YouTube videos full screen at 720p with virtually no lag or stuttering.

I will probably end up buying more RAM so I am able to reinstall Cinnamon and enjoy all the features of it.

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