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I'm trying to install Ubuntu alongside Windows, but not within Windows. I want to use Grub as the bootloader instead of the Windows MBR. I was installing off the liveDVD for 15.04, the amd64 version.

When confronted with the partitioning screen, I realized I didn't really know what to partition. My /dev/sda2 partition is the biggest, at 734GB. But, that's labeled as Windows Recovery Environment.

Here's my partioning screen

Sorry for the crappy photo, but I don't know how to screenshot from this screen.

I also don't know which partition to put the bootloader on. The default is /dev/sda, but it also has options to do /dev/sda's 1-4.

I also don't know what I need in terms of a swap partition. Isn't this where the bootloader should be? How big does this partition need to be?

Thanks so much!

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The grub bootloader, if you want it as your loader for multiple OSes, goes on the first bootable drive, which would be /dev/sda, and not the partitions. Even Windows installs its bootloader to the MBR of the drive. That is also where grub would install to, but it will scan all your partitions for boot files. So, your Windows would still boot correctly.

Looking at your pic there, I see the 15GB partition is actually your Windows Recovery partition, and your 736GB partition is that of your actual Windows installation. If you are not planning on using that much space to Windows, I would recommend shrinking /dev/sda2 down and installing Ubuntu into the new blank area. But, as a safety precaucion of your data, first back up your data from Windows before you resize any partitions, as there is always the chance of something going wrong and messing up all your partitions.

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  • I shrunk SDA2 to half the size, but the new free space is labeled unusable. As I understand it, I can only use 4 partitions of dev/sda. Can I delete the 33mb one?
    – evamvid
    May 28, 2015 at 23:37
  • @evamvid See if you can move sda3 into the blank area next to sda2,, then slide sda4 next to sda3, then it should work. I believe it is saying unusable due to the space between partitions.
    – Terrance
    May 29, 2015 at 0:26
  • I can't drag them around. I'm going to download Gparted and see if I can do it with that.
    – evamvid
    May 29, 2015 at 0:33
  • @evamvid good choice! I love gparted for partition manipulation.
    – Terrance
    May 29, 2015 at 0:34
  • Ok, using gparted. Is it possible to "drag and drop" the partitions? I'm trying to move them using the free space before and after, but keep accidentally putting them on top of each other/getting it wrong, and having to start over.
    – evamvid
    May 29, 2015 at 0:43

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