Okay I just heard about the linux thing a few weeks ago so as far as newbies go, I am a fetus. With that said I have minmal computer knowledge but grasp things easily. I have the Ubuntu 10.10 netbook saved to my thumbdrive and can boot it up to where I can try it or install. When I go to install I get to the part where t asks if I want to replace windows or run in side by side. I choose side by side and then it takes me to the screen where I have to partition my hard drive. It will not give me the option to do it automatically, only the advanced manually option or replace windows is there.
So when I have to manually partition the hard drive, this is where my lack of knowledge emerges and where I need your help. I have 239 GB available. I was going to leave 189GB dedicated to windows and use 50 to run ubuntu. The part that is Japanese to me is the file format, boot, root, nfts, etc, etc. Can anyone break it down for me BARNEY style?
I have backed up all my windows data and defraged the hard drive. I just want to get this ubuntu working. Thank you for any help you can provide!!

Hi,
I would create 2 partitions for your Ubuntu install:
1) one big partition (50Gb?). Name it / and format to ext2 or ext3, whatever system suggests.
2) small partition (as addition or as deduction from 50Gb) double your RAM size. Name it SWAP and format as special filesystem swap - you'll have this choice.

This would be sufficient for you.

Somebody can also recommend you to get 3 partitions:
swap, /home - as I described before, and
/ - root for all the system installation.
This enables you to keep your own data (/home) on separate partition. But this is slightly more complicated for you.

Hope it make a little sense.

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Welcome to the forums zhierl!

Unfortunately if you ask an important question like this on an Internet forum, you will get a mix of good answers and bad answers (for example the poster "darkduck" above has some bad advice). Rather than take your chances with some random strangers on the Web, I recommend you read and follow the official Ubuntu documentation at ubuntu.com: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Pa...t=Partitioning

You might also be interested in Ubuntu's WUBI installer, which installs Ubuntu "inside of" Windows, so no partitioning is necessary: http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ub...dows-installer

While it is not "official" documentation, I can vouch for this site as having some very reliable and easy to follow instructions: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/index.php

Good luck, don't blindly follow advice from strangers, and post back if you have any questions (or even just to tell us you were successful)!

@darkduck
Please don't give bad advice.
You need more then /home and swap in order to install a linux system.
@OP
Look in your other thread for some meaningful answers
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-drive-858544/

Kind regards

strange, but mine is working like this.
if it is working, it is not bad.

You need at least
If needed you can add /home
http://www.control-escape.com/linux/lx-partition.html

Kind regards

Ah, I see... Not /home, but /.
It is like this in my system.
Just confused myself.
My bad.
Edited my first post to make it correct. ;-)

To clarify a bit as a min you need a / (root) and swap partition. Swap size depends on what applications you run but if you want to use the suspend feature then you should have a swap partition double your RAM.

zhierl, if you gave us some information about your partition scheme, it will help us help you.

While running Ubuntu in "Live" mode, open a terminal (in Ubuntu I think it's under Applications, Accessories, Terminal; if not just press Alt+F2 and type "gnome-terminal" without the quotes) and type the following command. This will give a list of your partitions. You can copy this list and paste it into a reply here, then we can see what's what and hopefully give suggestions:

Also don't forget my suggestion above about WUBI, an install method that requires no partitioning. http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/wubi

@snowpine
You do realize the OP wants to install ubuntu.
It's not installed.

Kind regards

Yes, I should clarify the 'df -h' terminal command needs to be run from the Ubuntu Live USB, not from Windows.

Repo, if you know a similar command that works from Windows, can you share?

From the OP
Perhaps it's a good idea to wait until the OP give some more info

Kind regards

you can also use wubi from windows . just open the autrorun file from your usb. it can make a big file inside the ntfs that will be your "partition" google for wubi.
good luck i gotta go now,