Dual booting partitions questions

[hariskar]

I have windows 7 in partition C. I want to install Ubuntu to dual boot with windows. The disk has 2 more partitions D and E. D is empty and the size is about 292GB.
How many partitions should I make in D? What size should they have? What should I install in each partition? What should I do to dual boot?
Thank you!

[darkod]

You will need to delete the D partition, not "make partitions" inside it. Ubuntu doesn't install on ntfs. Once you delete the partition it will leave the space as unallocated. Leave it as such, don't create partitions in windows.

If you use the auto method to install, it will use the unallocated space and install with the standard two partitions, root and swap.

If you want different layout, you will need to install manually. In that case you can create a third partition for /home for example.

The size of partition depends. For swap you usually do 2GB or if you want to hibernate you need about 1.5 x RAM size. All the rest goes to the root partition.
Or if you make the separate /home, make root 20GB and the rest for /home.
You usually make partitions with ext4 filesystem, and the swap is only used as swap area, with no mount point.
The mount points for the other partition are / for root and the /home for the separate /home if you are making it.

[hariskar]

Thank you, if I do all above, will it dual boot, or do I have to do something else

[darkod]

It will dual boot. The grub2 bootloader detects win7 automatically and creates the dual boot menu.

[hariskar]

The new partitions have to be primary or logical?

[darkod]

Logical. It's better and it will give you more flexibility later.

[cybrsaylr]

If you want different layout, you will need to install manually. In that case you can create a third partition for /home for example.

Have heard a few say this is a good way to go.
How do you do it manually?
Can It still be done by repartitioning if you already have 12.04 installed or do you have to do a fresh install?

Right now I just have 2 partitions: 111GB for 12.04 and 8GB for swap.

[darkod]

Have heard a few say this is a good way to go.
How do you do it manually?
Can It still be done by repartitioning if you already have 12.04 installed or do you have to do a fresh install?

Right now I just have 2 partitions: 111GB for 12.04 and 8GB for swap.

If the partition size is good for you, you can reuse existing partitions. After you select Something Else and the partition list shows, you will need to select them one by one and click the Change button below.
In the windows that shows, you select to use as ext4 (or swap area for swap), the mount point, and tick the format box for the / partition if you want to delete an existing install.
If you have an existing /home you usually don't tick the format box because you want to keep it.

The bootloader device is a MBR of the disk where you want to, not a partition on the disk.

It doesn't matter if there is already existing installation, just make sure you select the correct options.