Partioning on new installation

[ac]

gks wrote:
> After rebooting and going forward with selecting install it
> processes up to portioning whereas it appears cryptic in verbiage. 
> I don't want to overwrite my existing windows data/os basically its
> a 60 gig drive with just windows on it now and the Ubuntu states it
> wants to partition 2 areas one being a swap area. I guess i need an
> explanation on what it is going to do in relation to data already
> on disk.

Different versions of Ubuntu Live CD have some slightly different 
wording just before partitioning. Which version do you have, 7.04 maybe?

What is the cryptic verbiage which you would like explained?

The process of installation which I am guessing is appropriate for you 
includes re sizing the windows partition, which can be done 
automatically in the install process. Please note that although this 
is usually safe, if things *do* go wrong then you lose data (windows) 
bigtime. I trust you have backups of your data? It is worth confirming 
they are ok. It is good practice to defrag your windows first (I do it 
twice) and also scandisk.

Using the Ubuntu version 7.04 live CD:

from desktop Install icon, after

language,
location, and
keyboard,

the Partitioner will offer choices:
- Guided - resize existing partition (graphic slider indicates 
percentage of available space to be used, and the expected final size 
of ubuntu space
- Guided - use entire disk (erase all existing)
- Guided - use largest continuous free space (to use this you need to 
actually have free space - most probably an unpartitioned space or an 
unformatted partition
- Manual  - very flexible and for experienced users.


I guess you will want the first option - Guided, resize?

hth
ac