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I want to dual-boot Ubuntu 14.04.5 alongside Windows 10 but I don't know how to partition the drives. I've read some tutorials but most of them don't have the same partitions that I have so I'm still confused on partitioning.

Upon opening GParted this is what I see:

partition display
(source: lostsmallworld at sites.google.com)

Is there a way that I can shrink Windows 10 without losing files so that I can have a partition for Ubuntu? I'm currently writing this from within the booted livecd since I can't get into Windows for some reason (sometimes the login screen doesn't show up or it does and it takes a very long time to show the users and password box then when I'm able to log in I can't open anything -- no apps, no folders, not even the start menu) And before anyone says that Windows is corrupted or whatever, I think this is mostly due to the last update since it was working before the latest update.

Edit: On GParted I selected sda3 and tried to change the size of it but it doesn't work. I tried to drag it back and forth but nothing happens? Sda3 shows white for the drive.

windows sda3
(source: lostsmallworld at sites.google.com)

I then tried another partition, sda4, and that one I can drag back and forth. The bar also shows some yellow for the minimum size and then white for the rest of the drive.

sda4
(source: lostsmallworld at sites.google.com)

Can I not make a partition for Ubuntu at all, seeing that I can't change the "Windows" partition?

Glorfindel
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2 Answers2

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EDIT Also you probably want to install 16.04 (the most recent Long-Term-Support release) not 14.04 which is almost 3 years old now.

Firstly make sure you have your a Windows 10 disk or "repair" option in your PC so that you can fix windows in the even that something goes wrong. Also backup any data you can't afford to lose before you ever do any disk operations.

Make a Live CD or USB and boot using that. Select "Try Ubuntu" and run GParted as you suggest and resize your NTFS partition to be smaller by the amount you want Ubuntu to use. The NTFS resize tools have been used a lot and I resize my drives with them often. As long as you don't interrupt the process it will resize it. Also take note that you should "shrink" it from the right side leaving you free space at the "end" of the disk.

What usually messes people up is doing multiple things they don't understand and then they don't know what failed. After having just done the simple resize you now have "unallocated" or "free" space.

At this point you can reboot and you should still have access to Windows since all you have done is created free space on your drive and not changed the layout of your disk partitions.

Once you have verified everything is still working as expected boot the live CD or USB back and select the "Install Ubuntu" option. When it gets to the step for selecting partitions you should have an option allowing you to use the free space you created earlier. Ubuntu will create 2 partitions within this free space.

When the Ubuntu installer is finished it will ask you to install a new manager called "grub" which you should select Yes and allow. This will find your Windows 10 installation and put it into a menu that you will see when the computer is booting up - the "grub" menu. If you do not install grub Windows 10 will boot by default and not provide the option to select Linux.

Kristopher Ives
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  • To resize the Windows-partition it is almost best to use Windows built-in Disk-Management or a third-party partition-manager running on Windows. Also disable fast-statrup in Windows. Do not make your Windows-partition too small, you should have at least 25-30% free space in your Windows-partition. – mook765 Dec 12 '16 at 01:01
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I did it maybe 1000 times, most of the times this is very easy and quick process.

I won't go much in detail, as you can find tons of tutorials from internet. Keywords: "How to dual-boot"

Safest shrinking option is inside Windows, other ways can work too. Login to Windows, open disk manager, shrink your disk, reboot.

About custom partition page: Right now have 1 MB free space, so you can't install. Do the shrinking, and then create one ext4 partition that mounts to / with minimum size of 40GB. And one partition that mounts to swap area with size of your RAM.

Check where you are installing boot loader.

Press install.

That's all.

ferit
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  • I can't get into Windows at the moment so how would I go about shrinking the Windows partition? –  Dec 12 '16 at 01:02
  • Check if custom partition manager has that option. If not you need a tool, like gparted live, to shrink. – ferit Dec 12 '16 at 01:04
  • Btw, if your windows installation is totally broken, you should backup your data using a live linux cd. Then you can freely wipe disk and install linux. (No need for shrinking) – ferit Dec 12 '16 at 01:06
  • Is there a tutorial on how to backup data using the live linux cd? I'm not too sure if my Windows installation is broken -- I think it was the latest update that it did that might be the problem. –  Dec 12 '16 at 01:08
  • Boot from live cd -> Open files -> Plug in your backup drive -> Access directories of Windows installation -> Copy them to your backup drive – ferit Dec 12 '16 at 01:18
  • Upon opening files, Windows was listed under "Devices". I tried to open it but it says that I'm "not authorized to perform that operation". I also don't have another backup drive at the moment. –  Dec 12 '16 at 01:45
  • @Shizuchan Maybe you have to be root. Maybe you have to disable fast-boot option of Windows. – ferit Dec 12 '16 at 01:48