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My laptop has two partitions C: and D: , with Windows 7 installed on the C: partition, D: containing very important files and documents.

As I want to start using ubuntu, I'm confused whether to copy these files in a USB or an external hard drive, or just let them there in D: and start my installation.

For the record, I have already an extracted copy of ubuntu installation on D: partition. and My questions are :

1- Can I install ubuntu from that partition D:?

2- Is it okey to let the important files in D: partition, and install ubuntu on C: partition

3- Most important, what about permissions?? can I have some permissions problems when opening files on ubuntu?? (it happened to me many times when installing windows over windows)

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3 Answers 3

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0 Backup is ALWAYS good

1 You must install Ubuntu from a bootable device. Make a LiveCD, LiveDVD or LiveUSB using the .ISO of Ubuntu you downloaded. http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows explains how to download the Windows utility to make a LiveUSB, and how to use it, step by step, to make a LiveUSB.

2 Yes, leave your data on D: which you can then mount in Ubuntu. However, unless you wish to completely eliminate Windows, I would instead let Ubuntu's install routine rearrange the drives so it could make space for Ubuntu in its own partitions, so you can continue using Windows while learning Ubuntu.

Normally, there are two major partitions for Linux, / (aka 'root') where everything goes except for the second 'swap' partition, which should be at least the size of the RAM in the machine, perhaps larger.

3 When you boot with Ubuntu, you can open and save files in your NTFS partition D: with no problem. Edit /etc/fstab to add lines like:

/dev/sda2 /media/windata ntfs-3g rw,nodev,noexec,auto,nouser,async,locale=en_US.utf8,uid=1000,gid=1000,umask=0002 0 0

/media/windata /home/me/windata ntfs-3g rbind,user,rw,nodev,noexec,auto,async,uid=1000,gid=1000,umask=0002 0 0

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  • Thank you so much, what you said now will help me a lot. :) ... I'll try these steps.
    – SmootQ
    Dec 18, 2013 at 19:57
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1 - I do not know any way to install ubuntu from disk, specially from fat32/ntfs.

2 - If you have nothing important on C: drive, then it's not a problem.

3 - You can access any files on the ntfs/fat32 after you've installed Ubuntu. If I'm right there will be 777 permission on all files on the NTFS patition.

But if you take my advice, "always have a proper galvanically separated backup of all important data", e.g. on another USB stick or DVD, or another HDD if possible.

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  • Yes, of course ... I will just copy the most important ones in my USB. thank you
    – SmootQ
    Dec 18, 2013 at 20:00
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I strongly recommend backing up your data. I did the same thing that you're gonna do but in a little different way. I had 2 partitions on my PC as Windows in C: and important things in D: as usual. Anyway, I created another partition with one of those applications which let you create additional partitions. And after it I had 3 partitions.

I decided to install Ubuntu on the 3rd partition. So my D: part was gonna be my backup part. But after installing Ubuntu, I just realized that my existing D: part just turned into RAW file system.

The difference between your system and mine is I had to keep Windows on C:. I hope you will not face any issues. Best luck.

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