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Okay, I'm not very good with computers. I got ubuntu a few weeks ago, after having windows which was becoming rubbish so I deleted it. Since then, I've found it hard to get around using some programs without windows, and I'm not a big fan of wine. Got the bootable dvd for windows but when installing it, it says I can't as I don't have a partition with NTFS formatting. Followed this thread https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowtoPartition/CreatingPartitions but was unsuccessful, because in this thread they used an unformatted hard drive. Tried to unmount mine, but can't because the mount point has an "/" there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

eddie
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laurencez1233
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2 Answers2

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Basically, you cannot unmount the root partition while you are using it. You will have to shut down your system and boot from another media like a USB stick or a CD and get into live mode to modify partitions on your HDD.

From my experience the best solution for this kind of problem - if you need to run some Windows program alongside Linux - is to use a virtual machine and Windows install there . It is much safer and easier.

Here, I suggest you to install Oracle VirtualBox. It's a well known multi-platform Virtual Machine program.

honza-kasik
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  • Wow, thanks for the quick response! Okay, that is helpful. Would i be able to create a new partition on the root partition while it is still mounted, and then format that to NTFS? Basically, when i go to install windows manually, it comes up with a list of two partitions, both of which windows cannot start on. – laurencez1233 Dec 29 '14 at 15:38
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    Actually, you cannot see Linux partitions during Windows installation as Windows supports only NTFS filesystem. You could create a new partition like @Bryan said. Get into Ubuntu Live mode, open up Terminal, type gparted (if the command displayed any error then type sudo gparted). Then, you will be seeing a gparted application on the screen. There, you could create or modify partitions. If you have any difficulty on how to do, you could refer this link. http://gparted.org/display-doc.php?name=help-manual. – Wolverine Dec 29 '14 at 15:51
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    No problem. But I think that you lack some terminology or it is me - because I cannot quite understand you. If you are not very good at computers (as you say) I would suggest you to install and run the VirtualBox machine.

    If you really want to install the Windows on HDD you have to create new partition for it by resizing the last partition on HDD and format that partition to NTFS. After that you can install Windows there. But be aware! After that you can no longer boot Ubuntu - you will have to recover GRUB.

     – honza-kasik Dec 29 '14 at 15:51
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Use Gparted from live CD and then

  • Unmount as u were saying becoz u cannot unmount the disk from which you are using currently so you have unmount from Gparted bootable pendrive
  • or you change the partition as you want.
  • Kindly notify me if you face any more problem
BrownBatman
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