I've got an SSD hard drive.
I was going to install Linux Mint.

Just wondering... is there anything I 'should' do... like partition the hard drive or something beforehand?

I'm assuming the ISO will have everything I need to just install? But then the whole hard drive is taken up? Or are there disk management tools I can use later to partition and format as much as I like?

Also... 2 things...

1. If I want multiple boot of different Linux... what should I do? How can I add and remove different OS?

2. If I want to wipe and use for Windows, what should I do to format and prepare the hard drive?

Thanks.

Although the installation process allows you to partition the disk as you require, I tend to pre-partition my disk with GParted Live. That encourages me to pre-plan how I am going to allocate space to the various operating systems.

It is entirely up to you how you allocate filesystems, and there are differing views as to how this should be done, but just for info, a basic summary of my multi-distro system would be the following (it's actually more complicated than this because I also have Windows installed, I have a separate /home/data partition shared between distros for Linux-specific work, and my main data partition is encrypted NTFS):

20GiB / (Mint 19)
20GiB /home (Mint 19)
40GiB TimeShift snapshots partition (Mint 19 - I tend to keep a lot of these, hence the size)
20GiB / (another distro)
20GiB /home (another distro)
7GiB swap partition (I have 6GiB RAM)
400GiB data partition (shared between distros - documents, videos, photos, music etc)

treat it like a hard drive, and do with it whatever you'd do with a hard drive, except defrag it, use trim instead.

The Mint ISO will allow you to partition the entire drive.

There are disk management tools, included with Mint or able to be installed, which will allow you to later partition things differently.

If you want to multiple boot different Linux you can either do something in advance like what hydrurga has recommended, or you can address it when you install that next Linux distribution.

Adding and removing different operating systems is something you can do.

Wiping the drive and using it for Windows is also something you can do.

You can do all of the things which you are asking about.

A concern is that you are asking complex, or advanced, questions without offering what your preferences are. And I'm not sure that some detailed answer as to how to map out your partitions or a recommendation to use a partitioning tool is the correct answer here. Some people can get their selves into more trouble using tools like that, or at least until they have the breadth of experience to know exactly what they want and the confidence to know that they can fix an "oops", or at least recover from it.

Some answers depend upon what you envision yourself doing with this computer, in the future.

Meanwhile, leaving open many possibilities is not always everyone's style. Believe me, I've done that and then promptly never used anything I set aside to use for some future purpose that wasn't fully defined.

Some of us never leave open any possibility of reclaiming or installing Windows again. I myself have enough spare equipment, that I test new distributions on a non-used computer and also rarely use dual boot.

It would help to know your experience level, as well as the concerns which make you ask these numerous questions of varying possibilities.

2 members found this post helpful.

Adding to what others have already said (which for the most part I agree with); you'll need a SWAP partition if you would like to be able to hibernate your system.

It isn't clear from your post whether you have another OS (windows?) currently installed and if so, which is it? If you have 8/10 it is almost certainly a UEFI install so you would need to install Mint UEFI also or you will have problems switching to boot another OS. Best to use the manual install method if you have and want to retain another OS. In Mint it is called Something Else. And if you do have windows installed, shrink the largest partition with Disk Management to create free space first and don't bother trying to create partitions. The GParted partition manager should be on the Mint install DVD/flash drive.

thanks for the replies guys.

long term: leave dreaded windows and have 1 main version of linux i always use.

i have a lenovo x201 with windows 10 on.
and i have a completely blank, nothing installed ssd hard drive.
the ssd is 120GB - so don't have ample space to do as @hydrurga mentioned.

apart from the main version... i'd like maybe 2 smaller partitions on which i'll install different linux OS.

gpartedlive - this is a linux app and needs to be used from linux?
or should i boot from usb stick and make adjustments before first install of mint?

unsure about the swap drive (which i definitely want and need). assume this will be an option i can configure when installing mint?

thanks.

Is windows on a different drive than the SSD on which you want to install Mint? If you have windows 10 and keep it, make sure you read something on installing Mint UEFI so you don't have boot compatibility problems.

If you want to install other Linux systems later, select 20-25GB for Mint a few GB for a swap and leave the rest unallocated and you can use it later to install another Linux.

GParted is a partition manager and is on the Mint install medium, just open a terminal and type: sudo gparted when you want to use it. You don't need a separate GParted Live CD, just use the one on Mint if you want to partition in advance prior to the install.

1 members found this post helpful.

If, as you say, the drive is currently totally blank then order matters. If you are going to install Windows, you might partition it first. If you do, you need to know what partitions Windows will expect/require and prepare them properly. Always finish Windows BEFORE you install Linux, as Windows will attempt to take over the entire disk. Safely adding Linux as a follow-up step is orders of magnitude easier and safer than adding Windows later! Plan this well from the start.

You must configure the system to support one standard, and only use OS installations compatible with that standard. In other words: if any ONE OS is UEFI then they ALL must be UEFI. If any ONE is classic/BIOS then they must all be. Plan this well from the start.

My personal preference is to run Linux (or for a server: BSD), with my secondary OS instances as virtual machines. YMMV

Hi,

Even though you have been a LQ member for a month; Welcome to LQ.
These type of queries happen all the time. I suggest that you do a LQ Search using key terms. And you will find loads of answers for this type of query.

As a newbie, you can get yourself into some corners that may be hard to back out of, so be careful.

FYI: I suggest that you look at 'How to Ask Questions the Smart Way' so in the future your queries provide information that will aid us in helping you solve the problem or query.


Please consider reading; https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...#faq_lqwelcome

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

1 members found this post helpful.

I always choose manual partitioning during installation, and just make the partitions how I want.

thanks for all awesome replies guys.
@onebuck i'm going to read every single link you gave.
but... just to give me a head start...
what's the best way to start if i want to keep windows in partition 1?
say keep 60GB for windows and 40gb for mint (including for hibernating) + 20gb for messing around with another OS.
thanks.

Hi,

Back-up all you wish to save so you can get back to where you are now. You never know what can happen, back-ups will save you any hassle.

You can use a partition manager to resize the hard drive to allow you to add additional partition(s). Look at 'gparted'; Most newer Gnu/Linux will have partition managers. A LiveCD/DVD can be useful and most modern Gnu/Linux will have the tools to help you when admin a system.

Most install CD/DVD will have the necessary tools to perform the required tasks. I use Slackware and recommend Slackware Live. Look here to get ISO and other helpful information; https://docs.slackware.com/slackware:liveslak?s
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

guys i need some help on the replies you have given above.

gparted. i've looked at this. seen one video on youtube.
it isn't obvious to me where to start.
say i have an empty SSD hard drive.
i want windows 10 on first partition and linux mint on another partition. i want to allow hibernation - do i need dedicated partitions?

slackware: this is a version of Linux?
i assume its better than others and i should consider using (for the purposes of parititioning)

i launched manjaro on live usb. it didn't pickup wifi. it was a buggy in other aspects - like mouse scrolling being hit and miss as well as mouse clicking.

linux mint looked ok. wifi working ok. i was planning to go for this.
can i launch linux mint and use a partition manager?
or maybe use gparted?

'manually partitioning': i assume this is using gparted, then installing and choosing one of the ready made partitions?

thanks.

Are you talking about hibernating Windows or Linux ? For Linux disk hibernation you should create a separate swap partition equal to memory size.

Slackware is one of the original Linux distributions. It is not for beginners. Stick with Mint. You don't need a whole distribution just to partition a drive.


Linux Mint Live DVD may have GParted installed. Generally distributions that use GTK widgets use GParted.