Installation

[ddubbz1979]

Getting confused in the installation process when I get to partitioning. I want to keep Windows 7 on this machine as well. I have a 500gb hard drive but installer is only showing 12gb or so and can only partition about half of that for ubuntu. Do I need to do it manually? And if so is there a walkthrough? Thanks in advance. I'm new and anxious to get into it. I'm downloading 12.04 by the way.

[carl4926]

Open Gparted in the live session and post a screen of your HD partitions as they are.

[mastablasta]

you need to have unformatted disk space. use windows disk manager to create it (make sure you defragment the disk first to avoid loosing any data). also make backups. the installer should then offer you to install the OS alongside another operating system. if not use the empty disk space to create / and /swap.

[ddubbz1979]

i used the disk manager to shrink volume and create free space. and from a video tutorial i found i created partitions in the "Something Else" selection from my new free 75gb. I did a / , a / boot, a swap area and a /home partition with varying amounts of space. Installer worked great for a while but at the end told me something with boot didn't install and I would not be able to boot the new os.

[ddubbz1979]

Would the 13.04 version be a better option for me? Been trying to install for 3 days with no luck and with my limited time in my schedule I'm about to give up.

[buzzingrobot]

The installers are essentially the same in 12.04 and 13.04.

What's the specific message you're getting when the installer complains?

Also, now that you've created space for Ubuntu, you might think about trying the "install alongside Windows" option. The installer will then handle partitioning the free space.

[carl4926]

i used the disk manager to shrink volume and create free space. and from a video tutorial i found i created partitions in the "Something Else" selection from my new free 75gb. I did a / , a / boot, a swap area and a /home partition with varying amounts of space. Installer worked great for a while but at the end told me something with boot didn't install and I would not be able to boot the new os.

You don't need /boot partition

Just use
swap
/
/home (if you like to keep data sep)
Set grub to sda

[Bucky Ball]

Thread moved to Installation & Upgrades

[ddubbz1979]

The installers are essentially the same in 12.04 and 13.04.

What's the specific message you're getting when the installer complains?

Also, now that you've created space for Ubuntu, you might think about trying the "install alongside Windows" option. The installer will then handle partitioning the free space.

Didn't get the option the second time. Only erase and overwrite existing. The message I get is about the GRUB boot and says something to the effect of new os will not boot because GRUB boot did not install. Thanks for your help in this matter.

[ddubbz1979]

You don't need /boot partition

Just use
swap
/
/home (if you like to keep data sep)
Set grub to sda

Any recommendation on how much space to set for each? And haven't noticed an option for GRUB in the installer unless I'm missing it. Thank you so much for the reply. Should I remove the existing installation before I retry? And how if so?