Linux Needs a NFTS or FAT32 Format of Free Space?
 

Hi, I forgot whether Mint 6 needs NFTS of FAT32 formatting and partitions, as I want to put Linux Mint in my XP drive D's space. 8.78 Gigabytes.

What does it need?

HI! Mint can't be installed in either NTFS or FAT32 [unless you would wantto install within virtualbox in windows!] You will need to format a drive in Linux format [ext3 or ext4 ,etc.] and then install in that partition.

Delete the D: drive (presuming it is empty, or you don't want what is in it) - leave it unallocated, Mint will format it as required during install.

Hi been some time now, I have a drive D with nothing in it, I tried deleting it, shrinking it, but there is an error reading only for the installation media, the drive, it won't proceed to use the free space, it is not called free space. And drive D is the largest space. The unnamed shrunken space I am unable to install on as well, whether 300 GB or 24 GB. I am trying to install Fedora 23 64 bit along side Windows 7 and later Mint. Trio boot.

What might that error be? You didn't post it. How did you try to delete or format the partition, from Fedora or windows? If you actually have windows 7, the best point to start is to use Disk Management in windows 7 to shrink the "D" partition then reboot and run chkdsk. Might want to defrag first. If you boot Fedora, open a terminal and log in as root and run this command and post the output : fdisk -l (Lower Case Letter L in command).

Reading over your last post, you indicate that you were unable to delete the partition but later say you have free space. Do you have free space outside the "D" partition. Posting the drive/paartition info would be a start as well as whatever error you are getting.

There is drive C with windows 7, about 90 GB, there is drive Q for windows restore, I made drive D with Partition Magic. It is unused. about 360 GB.

I tried deleting drive D in fedora install, I tried shrinking it. Then is "error checking storage configuration" and "failed to save storage configuration". Could my Fedora image have a fault? In Windows 7, all disks have been defragmented.

[root@localhost liveuser]# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x7d828127

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 2048 3074047 3072000 1.5G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 3074048 177154047 174080000 83G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 177156033 948099071 770943039 367.6G f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda4 948099072 976771071 28672000 13.7G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda5 177156096 948099071 770942976 367.6G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Partition table entries are not in disk order.


Disk /dev/sdb: 14.8 GiB, 15833497600 bytes, 30924800 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0608e38e

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 * 0 2463743 2463744 1.2G 0 Empty
/dev/sdb2 172 8455 8284 4M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sdb3 8532 41715 33184 16.2M 0 Empty


Disk /dev/loop0: 12 KiB, 12288 bytes, 24 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop1: 1.8 MiB, 1839104 bytes, 3592 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop2: 1.1 GiB, 1178566656 bytes, 2301888 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop3: 6 GiB, 6442450944 bytes, 12582912 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop4: 512 MiB, 536870912 bytes, 1048576 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/live-rw: 6 GiB, 6442450944 bytes, 12582912 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/live-base: 6 GiB, 6442450944 bytes, 12582912 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/live-osimg-min: 6 GiB, 6442450944 bytes, 12582912 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
[root@localhost liveuser]#

Please refrain from using terms like "drive C" or "drive D", it will only lead to confusion. These are Windows names, they have no relevance in Linux or any other OS. Your system has two physical drives, a 500 GB and a 20 GB (or thereabouts). The 500 GB drive is split into four partitions (five if you include the extended, but that doesn't really count), the 20 GB drive into three. Which partitions are you talking about here and how did you try to delete/shrink them?

The 367GB partition which you refer to as the "D" drive is formatted with a windows ntfs filesystem. You can't install Linux on that and expect it to work. It looks like you might have about 15GB of free space at the end of the drive but if you want to use the 367GB windows partition you will have to either delete it and create a new partition and put a Linux filesystem on it or simply format it (sda5) during the install.

I formatted the 367 GB partition EXT4, but my install memory stick stopped working. So I tried installing Mint on that drive, but it would not replying that it did not have the partitions it needed, like swap and boot... even though it was formatted EXT4.

You'll have to partition that 367Gb into at least 2 : swap and '/' (aka root partition; not to be confused with root user).
If there is a 'Custom' setup option, that one will take you through it.
You can also have /boot as another partition; its kind of normal but not strictly reqd under *nix.

I think maybe you were not allowed to delete "D drive" because you were trying to delete /dev/sda3 which is an extended partition. You do not have to delete that - instead delete /dev/sda5 which is the logical partition. Then you can create the partitions you need for linux.


/dev/sda3 177156033 948099071 770943039 367.6G f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 177156096 948099071 770942976 367.6G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

But you said you are installing Mint 6 ??? Mint 6 is ancient and is no longer supported. Mint 13 and Mint 17 are LTS - Long Term Support.

Not Mint 6, 17.3, MATE 64 bit. How much should I give swap, I have 8 GB RAM, and hundreds of GBs space?

If you have 8GB of RAM you may not need swap so 2-4GB should be more than enough. This basically depends upon what you use the computer for. I would suggest you first use GParted which should be on the Mint install disk to shrink sda5 and then create a swap partition with than unallocated space. You should not need a separate boot partition. Selecting the Something Else options should give you some control over the install.