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I currently have Ubuntu 22.04 installed on my Flashdrive with a free license , and I am planning to install Ubuntu 22.04 on my laptop , which currently has Windows 10 installed . My intention is to remove Windows 10 from my hard drive and have Ubuntu as the sole OS. My hard disk is 1 TB with 8GB Ram and it boots through EFI . The Intel CPU is i5-4210U 1.7G . Please bear with me for asking some trivial questions , (since I am a beginner with Linux). My Lenovo has a Windows 10 recovery partition on the hard drive , which would allow me to reinstall Windows 10 , if I change my mind in the future . Therefore I would like to do a custom installation of Ubuntu on my 1 TB hard drive to ensure that the Lenovo recovery partition (for Windows 10 stays intact )

  1. On my hard drive , there are two EFI (ESP) partitions which contain boot information for Windows 10 , along with a Microsoft Reserved Paritition . If I delete the above three partitions , and if in the future I decide to replace Ubuntu with Windows 10 on the hard drive , can the Lenovo recovery disk recreate the above three partitions or will the Lenovo recovery disk work only if the partitions are still left intact on the hard drive ?

  2. When custom installing Ubuntu 22.04 ( using the 'something else' option during installation) , how much space should I allocate for the '/' (root) partition on a 1 TB hard disk for optimal results ? From what I read on the web , the root partition must always be a primary partition .

  3. For the swap partition , for best results , how much space should I allocate for it ? Should it be made as a primary or logical partition for optimal results?

  4. For the /home partition , how much space should I allocate for it ? Should it be made as a logical or primary partition for best results . Thank You very much for answering these questions from a Linux beginner . Yours Sincerely , Dan

Thanks @ guiverc , user535733 , karel and Archisman for taking the time to answer my questions .The primary use of the Ubuntu OS , will be for using LATEX editors like TEXstudio and data analysis using SAS , using SAS -ondemand available online ( which does not require any software download ). I should have also mentioned there are two boot partitions for the following reason: The Fat32 SYS_DRV (hidden) partition is the boot partition for Windows 10 . The Fat32 LRS_ESP partition ( the Lenovo Recovery System ESP partition ) is the partition used for booting from the Lenovo Recovery System and gives a separate boot menu ( giving the option to the user to boot from Windows 10 or from any other device . The neat thing about this is that you can access the EFI boot menu , with all the boot options displayed without entering Window 10 )

Dan I
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  • Unless you have specific ideas on how you will use your machine (especially into the future, not just next 3 months, but in the coming years!) the best approach is the default approach and using a single partition, as sizes require to you plan ahead based on what you'll do in the future (and you gave no specifics; what apps you'll use this year, next year, year after that etc, what data requirements you'll have etc). You can non-destructively re-install Ubuntu Desktop systems even on a single partition; separate /home is useful if moving away from Ubuntu really. – guiverc Dec 14 '23 at 04:15
  • Does this answer your question? How do I install Ubuntu? – guiverc Dec 14 '23 at 04:15
  • As for ability to revert back to windows; that will depend on details you didn't provide. If you do a full disk install of Ubuntu, that will erase all partitions on your current drive, which will include any of your machine recovery media IF stored on that drive. Most devices have the capacity to write that to external media (thus do it first!!!) OR send away with some $s and they'll send you a copy; OR you can download it from their web site.. thus if you don't have recovery media separate from your existing device; you'll need to get/make/order it first! That is device & model specific – guiverc Dec 14 '23 at 04:18
  • If there are two ESP (EFI System Partitions) on the same device, that is undefined and shouldn't really happen, thus results are device specific (and may not actually be reliable anyway; given it's not supposed to occur). Yes you can create two ESP's rather easily, but only one will usually be used, and given it's undefined, what works on one machine may be different on another device, or even after firmware upgrade, though you can have an ESP on each drive with your machine firmware dictating which will be used (it'll be one only unless boot is modified) – guiverc Dec 14 '23 at 04:20
  • For swap partition, unless you have a specific intended use-case for your machine; I'll suggest you don't create one, as it's easier to adjust the size of swapfile, thus if you decide three-six months from now you need to make a change; you can make that change in mere seconds. Swap partitions do have advantages (as do swapfiles) but you've provided no use-case specifics currently. I replace my old box (which died thus I had to!) early this year & am using the defaults (prior box had what I believed was the best setup for me), and really I am yet to notice any difference. – guiverc Dec 14 '23 at 04:29
  • These are classic questions that suggest too many old websites for research. The Windows recovery partition hasn't needed to remain intact for many years now -- reinstalling Windows (with Product Key!) was automated years ago. You just need the Install .iso from the Microsoft Website. Swap partitions became obsolete for most desktops years ago, replaced by swapfiles. /home partitions went out of fashion a decade ago for several reasons. Advice: Just follow the Ubuntu installer defaults. Make your first install successful instead of perfect. – user535733 Dec 14 '23 at 05:23
  • Thanks @ guiverc and user535733 for taking the time to answer my questions . – Dan I Dec 16 '23 at 01:52

1 Answers1

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  1. Whether Windows recovery requires the same partition structure is a Windows specific question. I don't know the answer to that. Contact Lenovo/Microsoft support for more information.

for best results , how much space should I allocate for it ?

It really depends on your needs. There is no optimum configuration that produces "the best results". However, I will present my recommendations below.

  1. From my experience, if you install a lot of programs, you will need at least 60-70 GB for the root partition.

  2. Modern versions of Ubuntu will automatically configure a swapfile during installation. You don't need a swap partition.

  3. You don't necessarily need a separate home partition. Just create a root partition, and Ubuntu will properly configure a home folder within that.


tl;dr Just create a 80 GB EXT4 root partition, and you don't need to configure anything else. You can use the rest of the hard drive as a data partition.

Archisman Panigrahi
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