Which Linux distro

miser44

Hi,

I gt a new laptop der which has a 640 GB harddrive n want to dual boot linux with windows 7. I was wanderin how much of the harddrive should I partion for linux and what would be the best linux distro for a newbie

Tanx

dabl

I would say think about making a fat32 partition for files that would be used by both OS's. Linux reads Ntfs but not vice versa. Remember you only have four primary partitions. You might want to have a partition for /home too. Distro choice is pretty subjective.

Stuxnet

dont worry bout seperate / /home partions if your only dabbling the waters :rolleyes:

try a ubuntu wubi install as a starter, it'll install on your c: and offer you a dual boot, and you can easily remove from add/remove programs,

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/windows-installer

Im a fan of linux mint with kde desktop, or mint with cinnamon desktop is nice also, its built on ubuntu, so should be pretty good to pick up all of your hardware out of the box, a nice place to start while new to linux

miser44

Tanx guys,

After doing sum research i have decided to go wit linux mint. Is this a good tutorial to copy from or is it abit to much.
http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/06/06/how-to-dual-boot-linux-mint-13-cinnamonmate-and-windows-7/

BopNiblets

miser44 wrote: »

Tanx guys,

After doing sum research i have decided to go wit linux mint. Is this a good tutorial to copy from or is it abit to much.
http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/06/06/how-to-dual-boot-linux-mint-13-cinnamonmate-and-windows-7/

It looks like it covers the basics to me, maybe a bit too much separating out the partitions for the different mounts (but this is useful later when Mint 14+ will be released down the road)

miser44

Tanx guys,

I have decided to install Linux Mint, its gonna be a interesting weekend

Stuxnet

keep it simple to start with, shrink the windows partition IN windows, is the safese way, start search>computer management>disk management...right click your windows partition and shrink, give it 40 gigs loads :-)

Boot up your mint install, when you get to partition manager, select manual, and select to install to the 40 gig partition you made, format to ext 4, mount point is /
thats pretty much it, default the rest of the options :-) you neednet worry about swap space if you have 4gigs+ ram, imo, you can configure that kinda stuff further down the line :-)

Have fun

eta, if ever want to remove mint, dont forget you need to re-write the windows mbr (bootloader) use an app like Easybcd, to redeploy mbr correctly in one click !
run easy bcd, then go to disk management, and delete the partition you made, and expand the windows one again ! alot of newbies, just delete the linux partition first to find they then cant boot into windows after

miser44

Okay guys, so I shrinked the windows partition like Stuxnet told me to and it worked without a problem.
When I go to linux mint and get to the partition manager I can see the partition that I made but it says that it is unusable and I am not allowed to use it.
What am I doing wrong and is there away around it

Thanks

Stuxnet

Im thinking you may have the max amount of usable primary partitions, which is 4 if i remember correctly,

if you can remove one, I usually remove boot and the recovery partition, sometimes there maybe a BS partiton called ie "Dell" System tools, no need of it at all,

can you name what partitions you have ? removing boot mightn't be the soundest advice, unless you know what your at, recovery partition, you can copy to one or two dvds and remove up to you, i do, as it eats valuable space

when you have freed up the partition you created, good idea to make it an "extended" partition, which means you can have multi partitions in it, in the future if you want, but its not necessary atm

miser44

That was exactly the problem but its all good now got linux mint installed now. Just have to get my head round it now.

Thanks for the help