Question about partitioning hard drive, Ubuntu and Windows

Question

I have recently downloaded Ubuntu and started using it. I am very happy and impressed with the software so credit to the developers.

I do have a question however I have not been able to resolve. I installed Ubuntu as a copy of my windows OS was corrupt and did not allow me to start the system up. I would like to keep this copy of Ubuntu but I would also like to have a copy of Windows 10 also.

I have a 500GB hard drive which I installed Ubuntu on it and I never partitioned it so Ubuntu occupies aprox 460 GB. I plugged in my pen drive and ran Ubuntu from it and tried to partition the drive using GParted. I set the linux-swap to swap off and go about making the necessary adjustments. I get the following errors and it does not allow me to partition the drive.

• Shrink /dev/sda2 from 458.30 GiB to 166.82 Gib 00:02:23 (with a stop sign next to it)

• Move /dev/sda3 to the right

Why is GParted giving me these errors?

Do you suggest I fresh install Ubuntu (I do not have anything of value on the computer) and then allocate a partition from the fresh install?

I would like to try installing Windows 10 and see if it has the same option as Ubuntu (to run alongside another operating system). I could always clean install Windows 10, removing Ubuntu and then install Ubuntu again if Win 10 does not have this option.

Thanks in advance and great OS.

Answer 1

Yes, you can fresh install these operating systems, but first you need to install Windows, because if you install Ubuntu first you may have a trouble with boot loader (Windows loader will rewrite MBR with GRUB). My own suggestion is partitioning Windows drive C:\ to 150 GiB.

Partition Ubuntu like these:

1. As (/) = 25 GiB
2. As (swap) = Your RAMx2 GiB
3. As (/tmp) = 7 GiB
4. As (/home) = remaining space (because there will store your personal files)

I hope I helped