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Installation Summary

Preparing Partitions for Your Ubuntu Linux Installation

What is Partitioning and Why Should I Do It?

Ubuntu Linux installation - preparing
the partitions for Ubuntu Linux

Having given Ubuntu the login information you would like to use, it is now time to tell it how much of your hard disk to use.

Partitioning a harddisk means creating virtual (or logical) boundaries between segments of the harddisk which the computer recognises. It then treats each partition as a separate hard disk.

Linux requires partitioning to create virtual memory, called swap space. But partitioning is highly recommended for several reasons.

But Will I Lose My Windows or Mac System?

If you have an installation of Windows or Mac and would like to keep it, you can. You simply re-size the harddisk to create room for Linux and install a boot loader. When you start your computer, a small program called grub, a boot loader that comes with Ubuntu, offers you a choice of operating systems to start. Choose which operating system you would like to use, and the grub starts it for you.

Is It Worth Having More Partitions?

Having one partition for the operating system and one for the user data directories is an excellent idea. It separates the operating system and applications from your data. If you ever want to upgrade your installation or change to a different Linux version, you can do that without needing to erase your data.

Choosing Between Automatic and Manual Partitioning

At this stage in the Ubuntu installation, you have two options. Which one you should choose depends on your needs and desires for the installation.

The default option is for Ubuntu to erase your entire hard disk, scrapping all data on it. If you choose this option, Ubuntu will create two partitions, one for the operating system and user directories and one for virtual memory (i.e., virtual RAM or swap space).

The second option is to set up your own partitioning scheme. This allows you to have more (but not fewer) partitions than the first option.

For the purpose of this tutorial, I shall proceed down both paths in turn. Choosing the first option obviously gets one to the finish line faster. The last page of the information-gathering part of the installation is a confirmatory page which reflects the settings you have chosen.









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