[plug] New Installation- question.?

[Paul Antoine]

Hi James,

Q1:  Yes, you're going to need quite a bit more space for Ubuntu.  I 
would suggest booting the computer using the Partition Magic CD 
(assuming it's a recent v8 of PM).

Having booted from Partition Magic I would:

	Delete the current Ext2 and Swap partitions
	Move the NTFS partition to the front of the drive
	Shrink the NTFS partition down say 100GB?
	Re-create the Swap partition of 2GB
	Create an Ext3 partition of the remainder

I use PM a lot and it's safe provided you think through each move :-)

Once PM is done, reboot to Ubuntu.

Q2: The Ubuntu installer has to know where to put the Linux filesystems. 
  To do this it wants to either create its own partition table 
(automatic) or get you to specify where things go manually.

It will NOT make any changes without first forewarning/confirming with you!

Having done the above in PM you should tell Ubuntu's partitioner that 
you will do partitioning manually.

When the partition is displayed you will want to right-click on the Ext3 
partition and tell Ubuntu to use this partition and that it will be used 
for the root (/) filesystem.

When you click continue the installation the partitioner will create a 
filesystem there without changing anything else.

Q3: When playing with partitions, which in your case you have to do to 
make room for Ubuntu, you always run the risk of making a mis-step so 
it's wise to have a backup!!

Better yet, get another hard drive and practice on that first to get a 
feel for it.

Hope this helps,
Regards,
Paul


James Elliott - WA Rural Computers wrote:
> I am installing Ubuntu 8.10.
> 
> I have re-partitioned my 250 GB hard disk and it now looks like this:
> 
> *.........................Unallocated ........... 8 MB  (used: 0)
> *.........................Extended ........ 2134 MB (used: 2134)
> Ubuntu ..............Linux Ext2 ........... 86 MB (used: 3)
> Swap Space ...  Linux Swap .....2047 MB (used: 0)
> C: C Drive ........ NTFS ........ 236,311 MB (used: 53)
> 
> I used Partition Magic running under Windows XP to re-partition the disk 
> and followed all the suggestions and defaults applicable to setting up a 
> new partition for the Linux operating system.
> 
> The spaces allocated to Linux seem small compared to those used by Windows.
> 
> QUESTION #1
> Would it be advantageous to re-size any of the above Linux spaces?
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
> 
> 
> When running the Ubuntu installation from CD, I quit at Step 4, because 
> that launched the "Partitioner" which apparently wanted to re-partition 
> my hard disk.
> 
> QUESTION #2
> If the hard disk is already partitioned, whey does the Ubuntu installer 
> want to do it again?
> 
> QUESTION #3
> Is there any chance of losing my Windows installation and all the data I 
> have saved over the years, by making the wrong choice in the Ubuntu 
> installation?
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> 
> 
> I would be very much obliged for your help, so that I can continue with 
> my installation.
> 
> Many thanks, James
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