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I know usually it's not a big deal because: install Win 10, make free space for Ubuntu then install it. But in my case it's a little bit more complicated. Right now I have Win 10 on a 240 GB SSD that's my C: partition. Beside that I have a 1 TB HDD with partitions D: for programs and E: and F: for personal data. I want to install Ubuntu as my main os and reinstall Win 10 because I need it sometimes. The only partitions I want to delete are C: and D: because I need my personal files. So my question is: How would you do this if you were me? I was thinking that I put my Ubuntu root on the SSD, I cut my D: partition in two halves, on 100 GB I'd put Windows on the other 200 GB my /home and then I'd mount my E: and F: in Ubuntu. I know it's very very messy but when I made my current setup I wasn't thinking enough. Of course I will backup my data asap and delete all these unnecessary partitions and make one big /home but right now I don't have other choice if nobody can recommend me something better. Thank you for reading my post, I'm looking forward to your answers.

Koma52
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  • ok I have an answer ready for you but to make it perfect I need to be sure of what you mean by : "I want to install Ubuntu as my main os" you're just going to dual boot right? with 99% of the time you choose to boot ubuntu – tatsu Apr 12 '19 at 15:03
  • @tatsu of course – Koma52 Apr 12 '19 at 15:07
  • ok I added an answer I think is tailor-made to suit your needs. – tatsu Apr 12 '19 at 15:17
  • Be sure to boot install media in same boot mode. Microsoft has required vendors to install Windows in UEFI/gpt. But users can boot install media in the now 35 year old BIOS mode. How you boot install media is then how it installs for both Windows & Ubuntu. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI & http://askubuntu.com/questions/743095/how-to-prepare-a-disk-on-an-efi-based-pc-for-ubuntu & http://askubuntu.com/questions/221835/installing-ubuntu-on-a-pre-installed-windows-10-with-uefi & https://askubuntu.com/questions/221835/how-do-i-install-ubuntu-alongside-a-pre-installed-windows-with-uefi – oldfred Apr 12 '19 at 15:25
  • Just a concern you might want to look into if you will have important data. Windows updates for a few people sometimes make a mess of ubuntu partitions. If your system has enough resources maybe think of putting windows on virtual box or similar. – crip659 Apr 12 '19 at 15:26

3 Answers3

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In a dual-boot system, I prefer having my personal files in an NTFS partition to be able to access them from both OS's. Home partition cannot be formatted as NTFS, so I would have at least two separate partitions.

I wouldn't reinstall Windows 10. I would install Ubuntu alongside it on the 240Gb SSD and leave your data on the 1Tb drive. Depending on the size of drives E: and F:, you could reformat one of them as ext4 and use it as Home partition.

Then there's the possibility of using a Swap partition roughly the size of your RAM.

So on your SSD you may have

  • 120 Gb for Win 10 (NTFS)
  • 120 Gb for Ubuntu. (ext4)

Then on the HDD:

  • D: for Win programs (NTFS -unchanged)
  • current E: for home (ext4)
  • (optional) a Swap partition
  • F: for personal files (NTFS)

Partitioning is a question of personal taste. Some would suggest having separate partitions for /boot, etc., so inform yourself before taking a decision.

Community
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To Do
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  • The problem of having ext4 for home is that you can't use home partition in Windows. Depending or personal style, one might opt to use NTFS for home, so it can be used in both Linux and Windows. – Guangliang Apr 12 '19 at 15:28
  • AFAIK /home cannot be formatted as NTFS. – To Do Apr 12 '19 at 15:32
  • it's not recommended, yes : https://askubuntu.com/questions/330356/is-it-bad-to-have-home-on-an-ntfs-partition – tatsu Apr 12 '19 at 15:37
  • I've been using NTFS for my home partition since 2012 and I don't have much problem with it. – Guangliang Apr 12 '19 at 15:47
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If I were you my approach to this would be the following :

  1. search C: for all files that you want to keep. put them in a folder called "oldwindows" on E: or F: depending on which has the most space.
  2. create a windows 10 install usb with your windows and get ready to reinstall it.
  3. create an ubuntu install disk with rufus make sure your rufus is configured for UEFI : https://i.stack.imgur.com/bFCGU.png (you can wait untill april 18th to do this entire guide as ubuntu 19.04 releases then)
  4. unplug D: E: and F: as a safety measure. not only to make installing both windows and ubuntu easier but to avoid windows placing multiple efi boot partitions on each drive as it has a tendency to do durring the install process.
  5. install your windows 10, no need to get creative with partitioning just create a new partition table and allow windows to take all of it. This is the right way to go as ubuntu knows how to repartition durring install.
  6. in your booted newly installed Windows open up a powershell with admin rights (right click on the icon "run as administrator") and type in powercfg -h off then open up your settings and in the updates tab go to "recovery" and select the third option "restart now" with your ubuntu installer usb plugged in.
  7. now install ubuntu, durring the install process ubuntu will recognize windows 10 is installed and give you a slider to slide between the windows 10 side and the ubuntu side to determine the size of ubuntu's partition (and reduce window's accordingly) the slider locks at window's written files, give windows some leeway though, don't slide it right against windows's written files or windows will experience problems with low disk space. Half for each (120Gb) sounds right to me.
  8. now you can plug your D: E: and F: and you can put your files back into windows folder (you can do this from ubuntu without issue).

the above will result in a dual-bootable windows-ubuntu system.

I chose not to do anything funcky with the partitioning because simple is often better and in this case I think you'll be confortable with it.

ubuntu reads and writes to NTFS (windows) partitioning shema with disconcerting ease, it's hard to find any performance increase in ex4.

so keep ex4 for ubuntu itself but for storing files keep NTFS.

the reinstalling of windows is not necessary but I deduced from your tone that it had been a long time coming. Windows does have a tendency to pick up dust and a yearly reinstall keeps it purring.

if you don't see the use, though you're perfectly free to skip steps 1., 2., 5. and 6. it will work just as well. (given your current windows is installed in UEFI mode, if it's in legacy, you'll have to creeate your ubuntu install disk in legacy mode as well to match it, durring step 3.)

to make booting faster as I often don't choose to boot on my windows either, I use grub-customizer Install xclip

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

I use it to lower the coutdown time or even hide grub entirely and boot instantaneously. I can then run it again should I want to reboot to windows.

Also, if you have good hardware and two screens, thanks to virtualbox, you can have both systems running simultaneously. This is what I am writing this post from. My windows partiotion is booted by the virstualbox installed on my ubuntu and occupies my second screen.

tatsu
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I would:

  1. Shrink Windows in SSD to allow a new ~60GB partition
  2. Install Ubuntu to the 60GB partition accepting the default partition options (/home, /boot, /swap... everything will go there)

60GB for Ubuntu should be enough if you store your data in a different partition, and you said that you do. If you have an SSD is worth using it for the OS and sometimes making it smaller helps with the good habit of storing data that you want to backup elsewhere.

Katu
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