Can someone give me a better idea of what I did when I installed Ubuntu? It's working but strangely

Question

Ok, so I decided to dual boot Ubuntu 12.04 alongside my Windows 7 install. I'm on a Toshiba Satellite A665-s6050 if it matters, Windows 7 64-bit, 500 gb hdd.

I partitioned 80 gb of free space to install ubuntu in. Struggled with the manual partitioner since the auto install thing wasn't showing up. Using various googled tutorials, I made two partitions out of the free space, a SWAP partition about 2 gb in size and the other 78 gb partition, with mount point of "/" and tried installing. It installed, but when I booted again, it would only boot into windows.

So I tried running the install again, and this time it gave me the "Install alongside other operating system" and when I clicked that instead of giving me the slider bar where I allocate space, it went straight to install.

It is now working, and I'm dual booting, but now when I boot into windows, everything is as expected, my C: drive is 80 gb smaller bla bla etc. etc.

But when I boot into Ubuntu, it gives me access to my entire HDD, even the windows files, and I'm not sure why. Did I limit Ubuntu to 80 gb or did I only limit Windows 7?

I'm thoroughly confused, it did not go as smoothly as it has when I've done clean installs of Ubuntu before on other computers. This was my first dual boot and it was a total pain in the ass.

Answer 1

Congratulations on taking the time to try ubuntu.

• When you selected 'install alongside other operating system' the installer may have automatically resized the Windows C: partition and use that space.

• I would recommend to install gparted on ubuntu to see how your hard drive got partitioned.

• You can install gparted from synaptic or from ubuntu software center.

• Ubuntu can see your windows partitions without a problem. I think there is a program for windows to see linux partitions.

• careful with dual-boot. If something goes wrong with Windows it can be a pain to remake the bootloader work for someone still getting the hang of ubuntu. but definately worth the trouble in the long run ;-)

Good luck !

Answer 2

What happened is that the Ubuntu installer did not touch the 78+2 GB space you created by yourself. The installed chopped off new space from the C: drive.

What you should have done is to select the "Install alongside other operating system" option from the start.

Why did the initial installation fail? I guess the boot loader was not installed by some reason; did you try to install using a USB stick (instead of a CDROM)? If so, the bootloader might got installed on the USB stick which is not good. It should have been installed on the MBR of the C: drive.

How can you reclaim the 78+2GB space? There are several ways. You need to provide an image of your partition layout (a screenshot) from the Disk Utility program. Ask a new question about putting the space back.

Answer 3

everything is right with your installation, only there could be an unused partition , which could be the leftover of your previous ubuntu installation. you can format it but very carefully, if the grub resides there , you will not be able to boot to any os if it is deleted .

Answer 4

This is normal. Ubuntu can safely read and write partitions made by Windows(using either the FAT or the NTFS file systems). This is normal. Ubuntu isn't made to create a forty-foot wall between it and Windows. It is made to be flexible, and many users find it useful to be ale to access their Windows files. Do not worry.