Looking for explanation of choices on "Prepare disk space" step in 9.10 install

Karl F. Larsen klarsen1 at gmail.com
Mon Nov 9 12:24:25 UTC 2009


David M. Karr wrote:
> I have Windows installed on a box.  I want to install 9.10 on this box 
> so I can choose which one to boot at restart.  I'd like to partition the 
> single disk so that more than half of the space is available for Ubuntu.
> 
> I'm a relatively experienced Unix user, and I've been running 8.10 on 
> another box for a while. That box is also running Windows, which I can 
> choose at startup.  I don't remember what the installation choices 
> looked like for that old box, but the instructions I get when installing 
> 9.10 are definitely somewhat different.
> 
> I could make some guesses in the install, but when making partitioning 
> decisions, I really don't want to guess.  I've looked through the 
> existing docs that I can find, and I really can't find anything that 
> really makes it completely clear exactly what I need to do. The 
> instructions on the Ubuntu site aren't clear enough for what I would 
> think is an extremely critical point of the installation.
> 
> So, on the "Prepare disk space" step, I have the choices of "Install 
> them side by side, choosing between them each startup" and "Specify 
> partitions manually (advanced)". This page also seems to imply that the 
> default partitioning will divide the disk in half.  I see that the 
> little graphical area that shows how the disk will be divided has a 
> movable divider, but I don't see anything that clearly states that 
> whatever value I set it at will be used for the "Install them side by 
> side" option. When I tried moving forward with the "Specify partitions 
> manually (advanced") option, it replaced the simple partition map with 
> all orange.  The next page seems to give me the ability to repartition, 
> but it seems relatively complicated, and I don't see clear indications 
> on that page for exactly what I need to do.
> 
> My drive is about 320gig.  My best guess, if I had to proceed without 
> any confirmation, is that I should be able to move the slider so that 
> about 90g is used for Windows, and the rest for Ubuntu, and then the 
> "install them side by side" choice will automatically repartition the 
> drive that way (preserving the current contents of the drive, where I 
> had Windows installed) and continue the install.  I can't proceed from 
> this step unless I'm sure this is what it will do.

	First defrag your Windows. This gets it all back in a tidy mess.

	With a LiveCD from Ubuntu 9.10 use Geparted to look at your 
hard drive. Pay attention to all partitions. Then cut the 90 
GB windows out of what is always /dev/sda1 partition. When 
complete you will have a big empty partition, not where you 
want it.

	Move the partition out to the last partition. Then set it up 
to use for many Ubuntu versions.


73 Karl



> 
> Can anyone confirm this for me?
> 


-- 

	Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
	Linux User
	#450462   http://counter.li.org.
         Key ID = 3951B48D





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