You can resize the expended partition so it occupies all the space which is currently unallocated and then create an NTFS partition inside the extended partition. Since only the end of the extended partition need to be moved, the existing partitions inside it can be kept and also the operation will be quite fast.
I second the suggestion of brunopereira81 to use gparted for that.
In principle there is no problem with all 4 primary partitions. Some of the new computers are shipping with 4 primary partitions. The main concern is, you will have no option to make any more partitions, in case you need one more.
Even though computers these days have enough RAM to run Ubuntu, the operating system has roots in older time when a swap partition was a must. So even though you may not need it, it is a good idea to have one. It will make the system feel happy.
A separate /home partition is actually an excellent idea. I put it in all my Ubuntu installs. This makes fresh installs of new versions dead simple. Sometimes upgrades from the previous versions don't go well. At other times, after four or five upgrades on top of one another, the system gets cluttered with stuff you don't need and a fresh install is the solution. In these situations a separate /home partition makes it easy to retain your personal data and settings while starting afresh with a new system install.
So if you go with /, /home, and swap you still have space for one more primary partition for data.
The partitions need not be in continuous blocks. You can leave unallocated spaces in between. For example, if you leave some unallocated space in between sda3 and sda4. You may later expand sda3 or move sda4 to the left and then expand sda4.
However, when the partitions get very full, there may not be enough space to copy files over for moving partitions. Then you won't be able to move them around. So, it may be better to adjust your partitions sooner than later.
Even though I don't remember the last time I had my data erased or corrupted by fiddling with partitions, it can happen. Sometimes it is operator error, that is, I make the wrong choice. Thus, it is very very important to backup everything in another hard drive before embarking on any kind of partition re sizing, moving, and deleting.
Hope this helps
Best Answer
There are two kind of disk in terms of legacy partition table.
Max number of primary partition (including extended partition) can be 4. Extended partition doesn't take much space. Consider its a packing box and your logical partitions are packed inside it.
Filetypes of disk parition:
These defines how the files will written in disk. Earlier windows (upto xp) used FAT, FAT32. Newer windows file systems called NTFS.
Unix / Linux uses different file types like ext, ext3, ext4. In addition linux uses a partition with special format called
swap.Now I am assuming you want to have dual boot with windows. So first 50 GB is for ubuntu, second 50 GB for windows system and rest 150 GB for data.
Now ubuntu requires a swap partition (not necessarily if you have big amount of ram). Its generally calculated 1.5x RAM SIZE. If you have a 2GB RAM, preserve 1 GB for SWAP, have 4 GB RAM , preserve 512MB. Its your choice. Good amount of SWAP improves performance.
Steps
Click on unallocated space, click on
new. Enter size as 48GB (you have to enter in mb), choose file system type asext4, mount point/, partition type primary This means ubuntu root partition.Click on unallocated space, click on new. Enter size as 2GB, choose
primary partition, file system typeSWAP.Click on unallocated space, click on new. Enter size 50 GB, choose
primary partition, file typentfs(I don't remember whether this option available, you can use gparted later to format if its not available .)Click on rest unallocated space, click on it. Choose
ntfsas file system, partition typelogicaland create it. This will automatically create extended partition.Explanation:
Why logical drive in ntfs? Its because it will be available to both windows and ubuntu. Windows can't work with ext file system.
If you don't want windows at all, you can create all file system with ext4. But remember if you ever try to install windows, you have to reformat everything. Otherwise those drives won't be visible.
If you don't want to install a windows system, in step 3, choose logical instead of primary.