Following is the layout of the current partitions of my single hard drive viewed from Windows 7:
- C: has Windows 7 system files and my
personal data; - Q: for Lenovo recovery;
- SYSTEM_DRV: for Windows boot files;
My goals are:
- to create another partition D: for my
personal data, and dedicate C: for
Windows system files and applications only. - to install Ubuntu alongside Windows. D: will be shared between the two OSes.
My questions are:
- Is it correct that the free space
generated from shrinking C: will
only be able to create an extended
partition, since there are already 3
primary partitions? So must D: be
one logical partition on the
extended partition, just as the
partitions for Ubuntu will be? Will this be bad sometime? If yes,
other better solutions? - What are the good utilities to
accomplish the partition tasks? Can
Ubuntu installer solely handle them?
Or better to have some of the jobs
done in Windows with some
recommended softwares?
Thanks and regards!
Best Answer
Since you have windows 7, you can even use windows native utilities to shrink C drive. It would be good if you go step by step. I would do like this.
This way, you can separate freeing up space for Ubuntu and Ubuntu install. Advantage that you will get an intermediate validation point to confirm all looks good.
Here is a detailed reference on resizing partitions from windows: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowtoResizeWindowsPartitions
Now, if you like to use D drive itself for Ubuntu along with windows, I believe wubi is the only option. Then, Ubuntu will co-exist inside windows as a program. On any other install, I believe Ubuntu expects to have root partition on an ext2/ext3/ext4 partition type.
Let me know if this helps.