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I want to install Ubuntu on my device which already has Windows 7. On my Windows 7 I have three partitions including two for storage called D and E (with no important data on them maybe a gigabyte or two) and one for Windows system called C.

Now I want to install Ubuntu instead of Windows, and on Ubuntu I want to make three brand new partitions: two for storage and one for the system, like the way it was in Windows:

C D and E drives in Windows

How can I do this? Do I choose the Something else option during the installation, or should this be done after the installation has been completed? What are the steps to follow?

Image for the installation options given

Thanks in Advance.

Zanna
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rawan_amr_abdelsattar
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    Simplest is usually best; but if you don't want to accept the desired options, then Something else gives you full control. Regardless; Ubuntu is a POSIX compliant system that wasn't built around floppy drives (where each drive had a letter) meaning it's related to directories, so your assumption of floppy-type letters for drives makes no sense on a floppy/non-DOS/windows system; even if windows today doesn't have floppies, it's still based on that paradigm) – guiverc Dec 07 '21 at 07:34
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    You can choose something else. There you can delete everything, and create the partitions as you prefer. Alternatively, since you already have the partitions, you can individually format them to ext4, and install Ubuntu in one of them (by choosing the mount point / on that partition). – Archisman Panigrahi Dec 07 '21 at 07:46
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    The equivalent of windows drives C:, D:, and E: on Ubuntu would be /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3 but you won't find them in your filesystem as these drives are mounted at directories in your filesystem. For example, /dev/sda1 might be mounted at your main root (system) directory which is simply / Another partition, /dev/sda2 might be mounted at your home directory /home/ and the third could be used as storage that you could set up after installation. Personally, I would either recommend a single partition or maybe one for the system at / and one for home at /home/ – mchid Dec 07 '21 at 08:07
  • Does this answer your question? How to resize partitions? – N0rbert Dec 07 '21 at 08:36
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    Does this answer your question? How to use manual partitioning during installation? – karel Dec 07 '21 at 09:36
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    @Nmath I would suggest posting your excellent comment as an answer. karel has suggested a post that will help the OP but I don't think it addresses the specific issues raised in this question, which your comment does. – Zanna Dec 16 '21 at 11:59

2 Answers2

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Partitions merely for organization isn't a great idea. Folders can handle this job just fine.

Partitions are fairly rigid because they can be difficult to resize. We can see from your Windows setup that you ran out of room on your primary partition where Windows was installed. What's to stop the same thing from happening in Ubuntu?

It's probably better to just accept the default options for partitions and use folders for organization instead.

Some people like to keep a separate /home partition for easier formatting and system reinstalls, but reusing that /home on a different system can end up being a bit more complicated in practice. Lots of software store configuration files under /home and these configs won't necessarily work out-of-the-box when a /home partition from one installation is used on a different version, flavor, or distribution. It's possible that a separate /home partition could save you some time in these scenarios, but you should plan and expect to do some tweaking to get everything working smoothly.

Nmath
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Yes, "Something else" will allow you to modify and assign partitions to your Ubuntu installation.

You can also boot into Ubuntu live session,
select "Try Ubuntu",
and then install GParted tool:

sudo apt install gparted

Now you can use GParted to modify your partitions to your liking
before running Ubuntu installer ("Install Ubuntu YY.MM" icon on the desktop).

Selecting "Something else" in the installer now will also allow you to add static mount points (paths) to your additional partitions.

Piotr Henryk Dabrowski
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