Installing Linux Mint 13 64 bit dual boot
 

I have just downloaded Linux Mint 13 Mate 64 edition bit and burnt it onto a DVD and want to dual boot with Windows 7. I have also downloaded and printed the Official user guide, but embarrassed to admit I do not understand the instructions. I have two drives a C and a D both are Samsung 150 GB drives and wish to use the C drive as the dual boot. On page 14 of the guide it describes how to install when you get to Installation Type there two options (1) Erase disc and install Linux Mint (2) Something Else, which I have clicked on and there is the problem as it shows both drives but not annotated as C or D but a jumble of numbers and letters. Would the top of the listed two be what I would know as the C drive and the second be the D drive?(or will it not Matter) Once I know which is which I think I will be able to partition and install by following the instructions. I am thinking of having a partition of 30GB for Linux would that be enough. also on my D drive I have my music collection which was downloaded by Windows Media Player will Linux be able to read those files and play them?

Labelling drives as "C" or "D" is just a windows convention. Not used on Unix/Linux systems. Linux will list the primary drive as sda, the second as sdb, the third as sdc so if you are familiar with the English alphabet, you shouldn't have any problems. Partitions are numbered. sda1 would be the first drive, first partition, sda2 would be the first drive second partition. The windows method is a leftover from the early days of computing when the A and D drives were floppies so the first hard drive would be C.

If you don't know which drive is first in boot priority and the drives are the same size and you have the same number of partitions and size of partitions, you could have some problems.