04-30-2014, 05:21 PM
Everything should be fairly simple. If you don't need more room for windows then leave C: & D: drives as they are. You will be able to access either of those two partitions from Linux Lite if you want to. Since you're planning on eventually moving (or copying) the data on D: to another computer and possibly even wiping out Windows on this one, there's no sense in creating any additional NTFS partition. You've got plenty of room left on the C: drive if you need more space for Windows data.
Easiest and best bet is to just boot into Windows and delete the E: partition. Don't create any Linux partitions. Don't create any partitions. Just delete E: and leave it as empty, unused, unpartitioned space.
If you look at your hard drive screenshot you'll notice that drives D: & E: are surrounded by a green border. That's an "extended partition" which houses the two logical partitions -- D: & E:. After you delete the E: partition, look to see if that green border still extends to the end of the disk -- now enclosing the D: logical partition and the empty space from where E: was. If that's the case -- then you're Linux Lite installation will automatically be two logical partitions inside of that extended partition after the D: drive partition. If, for some reason, Windows shrinks that green border to fit only around D:, just leave it that way and your Linux installation will then create two primary partitions for itself (which is fine). If you choose to do partitioning manually (see below), just keep this in mind so you know whether the partitions will be logical or primary.
Once E: has been deleted, shut down Windows and boot computer with your Linux installation DVD/USB. Start the installation and when you get to the "Installation Type" screen, tell it to install "Alongside Windows". It will then automatically use that freed-up space from the deleted partition and create a Root and Swap partition for itself. It will decide the ideal size for Swap (most likely between 2-4GB) and do that for you -- so don't worry about that. It will install it boot loader to the MBR (master boot record) of the drive and take over duty of booting computer, giving you the choice of booting either Windows or Linux Lite when you restart after installation.
That's the easy way to do the installation.
BUT ... if you do plan on using that NTFS data partition (D: drive) from within Linux Lite, you have two choices.
If you want to go with option #1, read through this post to get a general idea of how to make the partitions during the installation and how to set the mount points for them. (Its a different Linux distro, but steps are essentially the same.) You're still only going to make a Root (mount point = "/") and Swap (no mount point) partition, but you will need to also highlight and "Change" /dev/sda5. When you do that, leave partition type, size and location as they already are. Choose "NTFS" for file system type ("Use as" box) and in the "Mount point" box you will need to choose a place in the file system for that partition to be mounted (where it will show-up for you to use). DO NOT CHECK BOX TO FORMAT /dev/sda5!!!
I think best place to mount it would be in your Home directory, so type this as the mount point: /home/username/WindowsData. Substitute your actual user name (all lowercase letters) in place of "username". Also, you can name it something else other than "WindowsData" if you want to. (Just don't use spaces in the name. You can substitute "-", "_", "." in place of spaces if you want.
Sizes for your two new partitions:
That's it -- go ahead and install now. After your first boot into the installed Linux Lite, run the Update manager (Menu -> Install Updates) to download any updates to the system first. Then, if you want instructions on mounting the NTFS partition (Windows D: drive), post back with output from these commands run in a terminal:
Easiest and best bet is to just boot into Windows and delete the E: partition. Don't create any Linux partitions. Don't create any partitions. Just delete E: and leave it as empty, unused, unpartitioned space.
If you look at your hard drive screenshot you'll notice that drives D: & E: are surrounded by a green border. That's an "extended partition" which houses the two logical partitions -- D: & E:. After you delete the E: partition, look to see if that green border still extends to the end of the disk -- now enclosing the D: logical partition and the empty space from where E: was. If that's the case -- then you're Linux Lite installation will automatically be two logical partitions inside of that extended partition after the D: drive partition. If, for some reason, Windows shrinks that green border to fit only around D:, just leave it that way and your Linux installation will then create two primary partitions for itself (which is fine). If you choose to do partitioning manually (see below), just keep this in mind so you know whether the partitions will be logical or primary.
Once E: has been deleted, shut down Windows and boot computer with your Linux installation DVD/USB. Start the installation and when you get to the "Installation Type" screen, tell it to install "Alongside Windows". It will then automatically use that freed-up space from the deleted partition and create a Root and Swap partition for itself. It will decide the ideal size for Swap (most likely between 2-4GB) and do that for you -- so don't worry about that. It will install it boot loader to the MBR (master boot record) of the drive and take over duty of booting computer, giving you the choice of booting either Windows or Linux Lite when you restart after installation.
That's the easy way to do the installation.
BUT ... if you do plan on using that NTFS data partition (D: drive) from within Linux Lite, you have two choices.
- Partition manually from within the installer and also tell the installer to make a mount point for the D: drive (/dev/sda5).
- Go ahead with the "Alongside Windows" automatic installation and sort out adding an entry for the NTFS partition afterwards.
If you want to go with option #1, read through this post to get a general idea of how to make the partitions during the installation and how to set the mount points for them. (Its a different Linux distro, but steps are essentially the same.) You're still only going to make a Root (mount point = "/") and Swap (no mount point) partition, but you will need to also highlight and "Change" /dev/sda5. When you do that, leave partition type, size and location as they already are. Choose "NTFS" for file system type ("Use as" box) and in the "Mount point" box you will need to choose a place in the file system for that partition to be mounted (where it will show-up for you to use). DO NOT CHECK BOX TO FORMAT /dev/sda5!!!
I think best place to mount it would be in your Home directory, so type this as the mount point: /home/username/WindowsData. Substitute your actual user name (all lowercase letters) in place of "username". Also, you can name it something else other than "WindowsData" if you want to. (Just don't use spaces in the name. You can substitute "-", "_", "." in place of spaces if you want.
Sizes for your two new partitions:
- Root = all free space from deleted E: drive except 3GB for swap.
- Swap = 3GB
That's it -- go ahead and install now. After your first boot into the installed Linux Lite, run the Update manager (Menu -> Install Updates) to download any updates to the system first. Then, if you want instructions on mounting the NTFS partition (Windows D: drive), post back with output from these commands run in a terminal:
Code:
sudo fdisk -lCode:
sudo blkidCode:
cat /etc/fstab
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