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I want to install Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Windows 10 on my PC,but I really don't know what is optimal way to partition the drive.

I can use 4 Primary partitions. This means that I will use 2 Primary partitions for the Windows 10 OS, for Drive C: and D: . Now I don't know what partitions should I make primary for the Ubuntu 14.04 OS. I am thinking to make the following partions:

  1. Directory /, Size 40 GB, File System Ext 4, Type Primary,at the beginning of the drive
  2. Directory /boot, Size 5 GB, File System Ext 4, Type Primary,at the beginning of the drive
  3. Directory /Home, Size 300 GB, File System Ext 4, Type Logical,at the beginning of the drive
  4. Swap space 10 GB, Type Logical, at the end of the drive.

I don't really know the difference between Primary and Logical partitions. I red that directory / and /boot should be Primary. I don't know if making /home and swap directories logical is going to affect the OS negatively.

I plan to use Ubuntu 14.04 more often, than Windows 10 OS if this matters somehow.

Veliko Kosev
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  • How new is system. Or real question is it newer UEFI or older BIOS. With UEFI you use gpt partitioning and there is no primary/logical partitions. But with BIOS/MBR you have the 4 primary partition limit and a default install of Windows uses 2 primary. Windows must have at least one primary NTFS with boot flag to boot from if BIOS. – oldfred Dec 26 '15 at 04:34
  • It is a very bad idea to create a separate /boot partition, especially this small. – Pilot6 Dec 26 '15 at 14:12

2 Answers2

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First of all, logical partitions can be extended to multiple partitions, while primary ones cannot.

I always recommend to have a single partition for Linux systems. It's easier to install and you won't run out of space very soon. This often happens when you get kernel updates, for example, and your /boot partition becomes full. You will have a great work to increase its size. So it's easier to simply have one partition.

I would recommend this setup:

  • First partition, NTFS, Windows C: drive;

  • Second partition, NTFS, Windows D: drive;

  • Third partition, ext4, Ubuntu root partition;

  • Fourth partition, linux-swap, Ubuntu swap partition.

This way you won't have to stick with logical partitions and system maintainance becomes easier. You won't have to increase/decrease partition sizes due to "no enough space" errors and your partition table becomes cleaner.

To do it while installing Ubuntu, select Avanced Options when the installer asks for the partition scheme, select sda3, format it as ext4 and put / as its mountpoint. Then select sda4 and format it as linux-swap.

Also remember to install Windows BEFORE Ubuntu, otherwise Windows' bootloader will overwrite GRUB (Ubuntu's bootloader).

Eduardo Cola
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  • I would like to separate at least / and /home. Do you think making the following partitions okay? / type:primary /home type: logical swap type:primary – Veliko Kosev Dec 26 '15 at 01:11
  • It wouldn't fit your 4-partition layout. You could merge Windows' C and D drive into a single C drive and you would have three left. There you could put /, /home and /swap, all of them primary. You won't feel much of a difference by having a single partition for Windows. – Eduardo Cola Dec 26 '15 at 01:16
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What partitions you use for Ubuntu has -no- relation to another operating system.

In regards to the partitions: you can make 1 disk / or you can put /, /home, /var, /etc, /boot, /usr (or any other directory) each on a partition if you want. It will all work and have no impact on the OS. Just 1 thing to remember: depending on usage / might need a minimum size. A 25Gb / should cover all scenario's. The same applies for /var: if you plan on using a large SQL database or a webserver /var might need a larger size if you put it on a partition.

My setup is very simple:

/ 25Gb /home 10Gb /discworld 1Tb

discworld holds all my private data. /home is empty (does not even have the directories; my user-dirs.dirs points to /discworld/Desktop (etc)).

I re-install every 6 months and I format / and /home and I mount /discworld.

Rinzwind
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  • So I can have 2 NTFS partitions for Windows OS and 4 Primary partitions for my Ubuntu ? – Veliko Kosev Dec 26 '15 at 01:13
  • No, if we are talking about old style MBR you can have at most 4 primaries per disk. You use one of those 4 as an extended partition with logical partitions. – Rinzwind Dec 26 '15 at 01:21