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I currently have a C: drive with Windows, that I'd like to leave untouched and a D: drive with ~130GB of free space and some music/movies.

If I shrink the D: drive in Windows and leave, lets say, 60GB unallocated, will choosing the 'Install Ubuntu alongside Windows 7' grab this unallocated space and install everything that is needed there?

Do I have to create those swap and root partitions I keep reading about manually? If so, when and how?

Thank you.

Ayyuf
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  • I think it will use the unallocated space, but to be 100% sure you can do it manually. It is quite easy. – Pilot6 Mar 22 '16 at 13:16
  • I've seen that thread, but didn't quite find the answer to my question. And the 'If you have disk that contains Windows installed' part seems to describe the process if you have no unallocated space. Is there a guide on how to do it manually? – Ayyuf Mar 22 '16 at 13:19
  • I gave the link how to do it manually. With screen shots. What is unclear? – Pilot6 Mar 22 '16 at 13:20
  • Essentially it will use the empty space in C drive. Better go for Something else option and do manual partitioning. – Arijit Chatterjee Mar 22 '16 at 13:20
  • @ArijitChatterjee That's not correct if D: is not a real drive. – Pilot6 Mar 22 '16 at 13:21
  • Pardon if that's so, I faced such issues before. – Arijit Chatterjee Mar 22 '16 at 13:26
  • Okay so I assume I'll have my unallocated space listed as 'free space' in the partition table. So now I just create swap partition, which should be about the size of my RAM, and the / partition and I'm good to go? – Ayyuf Mar 22 '16 at 13:28

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No it will not use unallocated space.

It will use the space that is already partitioned and used by Windows. It'll also provide a very easy to use interface to determine how much space will be left for Windows and now much space will be used for Linux. The interface is a GUI with a slider to choose how the space would be divided.

The procedure will then create an extended partition of the space you choose to give to Linux and create a two partitions, one for the Ubuntu installation and one for the swap space.

If you want to use the unpartitioned space you would have to use the Something Else option and do it manually. While not as seamless, the manual option is also very easy with a GUI environment for the work.

L. D. James
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  • I was looking at the instructions and I'll probably go with the 'Something else' option. I'd just like to know, is it enough to only create the root, swap and /home partitions? Where will /boot, /tmp and /var go? – Ayyuf Mar 22 '16 at 19:53
  • You can create partitions for those directories or not. If you don't, those directories will automatically be created off the main partition. – L. D. James Mar 22 '16 at 20:50
  • Pardon my lack of knowledge, but main partition in this context means what? The root partition? My C: partition? – Ayyuf Mar 22 '16 at 21:23
  • @Ayyuf You only have to have or create one partition for your OS. That is the main partition. That is the root partition. It's strongly recommended and you'll get a warning if you don't have or create a swap partition. Any other partition for other folders are options that you can choose to do if you want to. It's very common to have the /home folder on a different partition. There isn't a such thing as a C: partition. C: is a label that you can assign to a partition. It's usually the partition set aside for the Windows operating system. – L. D. James Mar 22 '16 at 21:29