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I am trying to install Ubuntu on D: Drive (228 GB) with Wubi. Installation size is by default 15 GB. Will I be able to utilize the balance 213 GB of empty Disk space or do I need to partition/shrink the drive?

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The answer may be Yes, but not in the way you expect. A Wubi install will not automatically make use of the remaining space on the drive or partition. It will confine you to the original size you chose at installation time: 15GB (up to 30GB if you select it). While you certainly can save files to the rest of the drive, mounted under /host this is a manual effort akin to mounting a separate partition.

It also won't stop you running out of space on the Wubi virtual disk, if you're not careful. There is a way to resize the virtual disk, but you should ask yourself why you are using Wubi upfront. It's mainly to try out Ubuntu first. If you are planning to use it long-term, then partitioning and installing directly is recommended. In this way you can select as much space as you need.

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Good point about Wubi's purpose. It is important for newcomers to note that Wubi is not designed for long-term use, and it is not as robust as a native installation. However, until UEFI has stabilised (in a couple of months, I hope), it may be a better short-term alternative for people with Windows 8. – Paddy Landau Feb 3 at 13:17
@PaddyLandau only problem with that is Wubi doesn't work with UEFI since it uses GPT disks; And grub4dos which Wubi uses to boot doesn't support those. (That's not even considering the secure boot issue). So Wubi is unfortunately not an option there either. – bcbc Feb 3 at 22:51
Thanks for the info. I didn't realise that Wubi had that problem. In that case, my suggestion to the OP is to go for a native installation, and don't use Wubi. – Paddy Landau Feb 4 at 12:58
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Yes. You would be able to utilize the balance Disk space on your partition. So, you do not need to partition/shrink your drive if you want to install Ubuntu via Wubi.

For further help with Wubi Installation/Upgrading/Uninstallation/Troubleshooting, see this WubiGuide on Ubuntu Wiki.

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In addition to any other answers, it is a good idea to understand the difference between a drive and a partition.

Windows refers to a partition as a drive; but in fact C:, D:, etc. are partitions, which may or may not be on separate drives. In your case, it is likely that C: and D: are two partitions on the same drive.

This knowledge is important for when you start dealing with drives and partitions on Linux, which does not confuse the two concepts.

On Linux, a drive is typically called sda, sdb, sdc, etc. Partitions on a drives are numbered, e.g. (for drive sda) sda1, sda2, sda3, etc. (not always in numerical order, depending on how the partitions were created on the drive).

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