Installing Ubuntu-which partition?

manic111 · 11 Mar 2008 at 12:42

I have 2 partitions on my 320GB Seagate 7200.10 hard drive, a 70GB partition and a 250GB Vista partition.

What options do I choose during the Ubuntu install to make sure that I install to the 70GB partition and NOT the Vista one? I desperately do not want to overwrite windows by mistake!!!

.walls · 11 Mar 2008 at 13:03

When you're running through the installer, just make sure that you choose the non-Vista partition - it should tell you partition sizes (if it doesn't tell you in MB, it will still tell you in sectors - choose the smaller one

)

If not, then you can do it by device name: /dev/sda1 is the first partition (closest to the spindle), dev/sda2 is the next, etc, etc.

The Ubuntu installer should do all the work for you - but if both partitions are NTFS, it may get confused... so it really is best to pay attention.

p.s. you won't actually get that amount of disk space from a 320 GB disk...

manic111 · 11 Mar 2008 at 13:07

No I know I wont get that amount of disk space. One partition (Vista) is NTFS, the other is down as "unallocated space"-I assumed that the installer would format it how it wants to.

Outcast · 11 Mar 2008 at 14:50

IF the 70gb is unallocated then there's your answer.

Use Guided "use largest continuous free space" option. Triple check you have selected that option though. (This option is halfway down the screen)

Your Vista partition is not free space.. In fact any Partition formatted to NTFS whether empty or not is NOT free space. It's been allocated to NTFS !!

The installer will then report its found a windows install and ask for a user and password to create an access account. I give it the same as the user account is being setup for Ubuntu.

manic111 · 11 Mar 2008 at 14:51

Got it sorted, cheers! Any chance you could do me a favour and look at my other thread if you know anything about wireless networks? Having some issues.