Which partition should I install on on a Dell XPS 13?

Question

I just bought the dell ultrabook xps 13, but I have some difficulties to install ubuntu 12.04.

Problem is about Hard-Disk partition. Actually, the sda has already 4 part :

and I don't want delete the wrong part ...

This is the information from windows :

sda1 = OEM (100% free according windows, 33MB used on 41MB according linux ...)

sda2 = RECOVERY

sda3 = windows7

sda4 = standBy extended (hibernation) (100% free according windows, unknown according linux)

I think I should avoid to delete windows7 or RECOVERY, then it's between sda1 and sd4. Fact is that I don't know what is OEM and hibernation seem pretty useful ...

If you have an idea or informations, thanks for your help :)

Answer 1

OEM is the partition that stores the bootmanager of windows 7. This drive enables you to boot from restore partition. (This occurs when you insert recovery disk)

You are correct you should not delete sda2 or sda3.

Thing I would recommend.

• Create the restore disk if not done already.
• Delete sda4. Right click and create a new extended partition. A extended partition is a wrapper to many logical partition.
• Inside that extended partition create a partition that will be used as SWAP partition.
• Create another partition to install ubuntu. With / as mount point.
• Rest place you can create more partition in ntfs. That will be accessible to both OS.

NOTE: According to screenshot you are installing GRUB in sdb, make sure its correct

Here is the partition scheme of mine (dell xps 15)

Answer 2

I would avoid deleting sda1 ,it seems Windows reserved MBR , so sda4 seems good enough for ubuntu installation.

From the image sda4 is 8.5 GB so you can reserve 2 GB for swap space and remaining for ROOT / partition.

From the above image MENU , you can select that sda4 partition to be deleted ( don't worry just for allocation process), which will later show as unallocated , then ADD the Unallocated partition and set the SIZES to create swap and Root "/" (ext4) partitions .

From the last drop-down Bootloader menu option select SDA not sdaX for installing Grub . And you are good to go.

Note : Avoid storing large sums of DATA in Ubuntu home partition , you may run out of memory soon enough :)