Choosing "something else" when installing

Question

I am in the process of installing Kubuntu 14.4 on my Windows 10 computer. Normally I would simply use the whole disk, as I don't really like Windows, however there are a few programs I like to use, and want to keep it.

I have tried this in the past, and failed. Ending up erasing the entire disk and using it for Linux (have used several flavors in the past).

My problem is configuring the hard disk. I have never quite been able to understand partitioning. I usually screw it up, one way or another. The last time totally messing up a hard drive in my laptop, to the point I had to install a new one and start from scratch (hey now I have a better hard drive with double the space) I always manage somehow to mess up the order of the partitions. Don't ask me how. It should be fairly straightforward. The last time I tried I ended up with no mount point, and could not get anything to install.

I would like to see some sort of graphic showing just what I will encounter when I choose "something else". (I have already tried Kubuntu on this machine and it worked fine, even the touchscreen).

I remember trying to install another distro some time ago, and being presented with questions I had no idea how to answer, regarding formatting the disk. So if there is someone out there who has the patience to walk me through this, I would appreciate it. I also have problems converting MB's to GB's. For some reason it always is much less than I thought. I have a 2 TB hard drive. So figuring it out in MB's is a bit confusing. Hey for years, I couldn't make change for a dollar!

What I have now is two small volumes at the beginning that simply say "Healthy" and nothing else. I assume they are something that came with my HP 23 Aio. Both are in the milibytes. Then There is C drive which is Windows. I have 196 GB free out of 496 GB. There is a recovery drive D marked "new volume" that is 450MB, Then there is a drive E that is the largest being 1.5 GB. It is also marked "new volume" and appears to be empty. At least that is what the file manager says.

I really don't want to shrink C drive as I have quite a few video and music files stored. Which is why I believe the drive is more than half full. Windows not showing what is stored just where. That leaves E, which I had tried to shrink, and D which I had deleted after making a recovery USB. Those two mistakes left me with unallocated space after D drive, and after E drive. So I restored from a recovery USB (it's still doing its thing two hours already). Supposedly that will restore everything to the way it was before I tried to manipulate the partitions. I have my important files saved to an external HD.

Answer 1

Okay, from your post I'll assume that Install alongside Windows is not working.

Now for the partitioning:

Partitions needed by Linux

Linux needs the following partitions to install:

• A root partition -- mounted at / -- contains all files
• A swap partition -- used as additional RAM -- if you have decent amounts of RAM (8 GB or more), you may not need this

How to partition

Do not start the installer yet!

I'll assume the entirety of the disk is taken up by Windows partitions.

If you want to install Kubuntu on your hard drive, you'll need to shrink a partition or there won't be any space!

Using Partition Manager (found in the menu), right-click on the partition you want to shrink and select Resize/Move.

There will be a rectangle with something like sd... on it. Select the edge of it with the mouse and drag it to resize.

The recommended amount of free space (indicated by a rectangle divided by a line from the previous rectangle (it's so hard to put GUIs into words!)) is 20-25 GB.

Click Apply or OK or something.

Now you will have some free space.

Now, start the installer!

When you get to the Something Else... option, choose it. Right click your shiny new free space and choose "New partition".

Select it to mount at / and used as Ext4 ... filesystem and check "Format". Now do the same for the little bit of space, except this time, don't change the mount point and select it to be used as swap. Its recommended size should be

amount_of_free_space - half_of_RAM_size.

You are now ready to continue!

P.S. Still in doubt? Refer to this excellent answer.

Welcome to Linux and hope you like it!

Answer 2

Why to resize Windows C drive and invite difficultly? Rather use the E drive for Ubuntu plus Swap. Format it with EXT4 for / and keeping 2-4 GB swap. Install normally after selecting grub on MBR (sda). Post installation you can mount Windows partition via File manager and use whatever file you want.

As you have 1500GB space in E, why not breaking it into 2, maybe 100GB and 1400GB. 100GB for Ubuntu plus Swap and 1400GB Formatted as NTFS for data. So that it can be used by both the OS. Just mark it as do not use this 1400GB partition while installing Ubuntu.

Answer 3

Most if not all long time Linux users will omit any tips to preserve any W's related usability. Windows installer doesn't format partitions since long time now. The last time I saw that I was still in W XP. So you need to leave the disk Unallocated from a Live CD session and do the restore again if you want total control over partition Layout which in W's is not total. But you can install in any order with another method and just leave unallocated space where you want W's.

I assume you want Windows in one piece so in that case you are going to need a little help of a flash drive.

If this is a laptop great in most cases because laptops usually have a SD card reader so you buy the fastest bad boy card and use it during installation ( empty but with a Fat 32 partition ), what you would is sort out the partitioning layout problem and install Kubuntu in the hard drive but the bootloader in the memory card. Last, go to your Bios settings and set the first drive for Booting as the memory card.

When in Kubuntu make a disknimage backup of the booloader and in every update to it.

This is actually all you need to sort out if you want Windows to be really intact.

The Boot loaded used in Linux commonly support W's so it will be included in the boot loader for Kubuntu.

AFAIK Kubuntu shows the menu when two or more OS's are installed but you can change that to skip the boot menu and just pull out the card and W's will boot.

That's is done in the GRUB configuration.

A more correct way (and less painful ) would be to install W's last after any Linux distro you use and a copy of Hiren's boot CD in an USB drive to make the process faster but I haven't done that. The idea is that Windows will set it's bootloader and will work well with upgrading and other utilities that could be affected by not having it's original loader.

If you desire this, ask for help in the Ubuntu forums and double check everything stated here.

Good luck!