I have a desktop computer on which I first installed Windows 7, then Ubuntu 13.10 (in dual-boot).
Since everything went fine, I wanted to do the same on my laptop, which currently has only Windows 7 installed.
At the installation screen, I'm supposed to create a new partition for Ubuntu but… I can't because it tells me that the space is "unusable". Apparently you can only have 4 partitions (worst design decision btw).
So the partitions listed there are:
- Windows 7 (loader) – about 100 MB in size
- my Windows partition
- my Data partition (with movies, photos, software etc.)
- Windows Recovery Environment (loader) – about 1 GB in size
I really need to install Ubuntu on this system. So I thought I could delete the Recovery partition. I never use it and I hope to god that I'll never regret not having it.
The question is: is it safe to delete this partition ? If yes, do I have to simply delete it from the Ubuntu installation screen or do I have to do something more special about it (like changing boot entries, I suspect it's bootable) ? Is there a better solution for my problem ?
I'm asking because I don't want to break something (I know from experience that working with partitions can have unpredictable consequences at the slightest wrong thing done to them).
Thank you in advance.
Best Answer
Define "safe," but yes. If you ever run into serious trouble with your Windows install and need to do a system recovery or operating system install, you'll probably wish you hadn't, but it doesn't contain anything you can't get somewhere else, or do with other tools (most of which can be found on a Windows install DVD).
And to delete it, all you need to do is delete it from the Ubuntu install screen.
Yes, there is. Virtualization. Get a client hypervisor like VMware workstation and run Ubunutu inside your Windows OS. For this reason, I kicked dual booting and all its related headaches to the curb many years ago.
Check out this question and its answers for why "there are only 4 partitions." It actually was a very sensible, and good design decision at the time, back when hard disks were very expensive, and by our standards, had very small storage capacities. It doesn't have to be that way anymore, though, and the solution to that particular problem is to use GPT-formatted disks.