No, I was not advising using both methods. As I stated in my previous post,

the purpose of using the "Something else" method was solely to find out that names of the Windows and EFI partitions, go back and "Install Alongside Windows". Now when Linux Mint confirms the actions it is going to take, you will use that information you got from the partitioner in "Something else" to make sure nothing will be done to your Windows partition.

As yancek stated, you can get the same information from gparted, but I though I would avoid confusing you by opening an extra partitioning application.

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The purpose of something else is the ability to create partitions as desired or assign mount points to existing partitions.

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I am well aware of the intent of the Something Else function. My purpose however was to help the OP not mess up his/her Windows partitions again by using the same tool (the installer) to get device names, rather than having several tools open, getting confused, then doing the wrong thing in the wrong window.

I explicitly stated twice to note the device names and then click Back. Nothing is being done at all in this tool.

Edit: If you note, the OP already stuffed their Windows partition once. Look at the abundance of the recent "lost my Windows partition", "Windows files", etc., posts. So, the goal is using the same tool so as to avoid any further partitioning mistake, and maybe reduce the chance of error.

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Ok I am going to have to stick to following the advice one expert here. So I will go with goumba.

I think my first torrent LM download and burn came through pirate bay, so I am going to burn again.

I just downloaded LM 17 again through the torrent option on the official LM website, I opened it with qbittorrent client.

I can get "SmartBuy" dvd's close by but I have never heard of that brand before. I am going to travel across town to get Maxell or Sony dvds. Then burn again.

I suppose it's a bit late to save you the trouble of doubling and re-burning, but if you check the MD5 checksum (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ho...SUM_on_Windows, get the correct MD5 from Mint's download page) of the ISO you downloaded from the other site, and it matches, then there's no need to bother.

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But the Windows partition has already been shrunk once. This procedure will shrink the windows partition a second time. It will not use the unallocated portion of the disk from the first shrinking.

Secondly, there are a Windows recovery partition and a windows drive C: partition on the disk. Using the install beside Windows option produces a swap partition and a root (/) partition for a total of 4 primary partitions. Do you want a /home partition, too? IMO, that would be a good thing to do, but YMMV.

To get a swap, root, and home partition, you have to use gparted. Make the unallocated part of the disk drive an extended partition, not a primary partition. Set up 3 logical partitions in the extended partition in this order:
1. swap -- 12 GB = double amount of computer RAM. Format as swap. This is first logical partition because the less distance the drive heads move, the faster the swap from RAM.
2. root -- Absolute minimum is 10 GB. I used 40 GB for space to add applications. Format as ext4.
3. home -- The rest of the extended partition. Format as ext4.

Now run the installation.

When you get to the installation type window, choose something else. In the next window, click on the proposed root partition and click on the change button. A small window opens. In the top field, choose the ext4 journaling file system option. In the bottom (next to bottom???) field, choose the / mount point. I do not think the partition must be reformatted. Click on the OK button, and the little window closes. Then click on the proposed home partition and then the change button. In the top field, choose the ext4 journaling file system option. Then choose the /home mount point and click OK. If there are no complaints, click "Install", the point of no return.

It takes another 30 minutes or so for the install to complete. Sit back an enjoy the slide show or do something else to pass the time. From here on, just follow the itsfoss.com guide for the time zone and user name and password.

Good luck.

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My response was to a post in which the OP was asking if they should expand the Windows partition back to fill the whole drive before using the install alongside option, as they had already shrunk the Windows partition. The Mint installer would then, yet again, shrink the partition. Why do that? Every resize is asking for trouble. The OP had the partition sized already, leave it alone. Yes, it's shrinking the unallocated space, and you may think that's safe which it is, in theory - but every time you do that you're also screwing with the FAT or MFT and that is not safe.

The OP is getting their feet wet, why make it so complicated with more than basic partitioning? Install alongside Windows, and what the installer chooses should be fine for the OPs use.

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As an aside, the whole twice the amount of RAM rule of thumb is outdated. However the swap space should be slightly larger than that of RAM for proper functioning of suspend and hibernation.

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An excellent point. So, the minimum number of future resizes as possible.

The OP did the original shrink in order to use the unallocated space for linux. The way I understand it, the install beside windows option divides the windows partition and installs linux in that space. It does not touch the unallocated space. The root partition is installed first. And the swap and root partitions are primary partitions. As there can be no more than a total of 4 primary and extended partitions on a disk, the presently unallocated disk space will remain unallocated and never be used without messing around with the linux partitions. That strikes me as more than basic partitioning. Please correct anything that I got wrong here.

If the above is correct, then formatting the presently unallocated space as an extended partition for linux would solve many of the problems. It requires more than basic partitioning, but it does not require resizing the present partitions. It uses the full disk, and the OP can divide the extended partition into as many logical partitions as desired for.

Thanks for the information about the swap partition rule of thumb being outdated. So the swap partition should be somewhere in the 7-12 GB range. As the OP intends to do video editing, should the swap partition be more than 7 GB?

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No, if there is unallocated space and you click "Install alongside Windows, the installer will use the unallocated space. See the screen shots below. Everything, even / is in an extended partition.





Sources on swap (two of them, with slightly differing info, of course):

http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Re...html#id4394007

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Sw...p_do_I_need.3F

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Thank you.

I did some experimentation last night and got the same result.

CHANGE IN GAME PLAN -- THIS CANCELLED, see 2 posts down.

I would like to install Linux Mint completely and wipe Windows.

I will do whatever this takes:
go back in and expand the partition to include the whole disk if necessary.

any suggestions appreciated.

If you want to wipe Windows completely, and you are absolutely sure, choose "Erase disk and install Linux Mint" at the "Installation Type" point of the installation. That will remove your Windows partition and set up Linux Mint as the only OS.

No need to do anything to the existing partition, the Mint installer will take care of it for you.

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HAVE TO GO BACK TO DUAL BOOT

The reason, linux does not recognize my usb

and probably will not recognize wd external hard drive.

Linux may also not be compatible with some security programs I have installed.

After installing LM dual boot, I will have to find compatible flash drives and other programs.

so, for 6 gb ram I can give 8 gb swap?

Update on LM version =======

I have downloaded and burned LM from the official site. I renamed it when i saved it to distinguish it from the other LM iso I had, but then ImgBurn would not recognize. So I had to tack .iso onto the end of the name.

Then ImgBurn displayed it as [my file name] .iso.iso

but it got burned. (I hope this installs even though I changed the name.)

The md5 checksums match.

I am going to print out the "itsfoss" guide to installation so I have a paper copy, then install.