Trouble Partitioning HDD

A

Angelsong7

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I'm trying to partition my HDD to be able to run either Linux or Windows. I'm using GParted to do this. What setting do I use for the partitions. I want to put Linux in partition 1 and Windows in partition 2. I assume that partition 1 is set as primary. What do I set partition 2 as? Also, how do I select which OS I want to use on boot-up?
 


If you plan on dual booting with Windows then install it first. The Windows installer will setup the Windows partitions. Then, either using GParted or the Windows Disk Management tool shrink the Windows partition. The free space will be used for the Linux installation. As for the Linux partition that depends on your preferences. I would recommend EXT4.

*EDIT: The partition will have to be a primary. If your system uses legacy boot then you can have 4 primary partitions. Otherwise the number of available primary partitions is based on your available disk space.

If you are using UEFI then an EFI boot partition will be needed for your Linux install. You may want to just shrink the Windows partition then allow the Linux installer to setup the partitions and boot loader.

At startup, assuming GRUB has been setup correctly AFTER you install Windows, the GRUB menu will appear and you should have 10 seconds to choose which OS to boot into.
 
What is GRUB?

GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) is the bootloader provided by most Linux distributions. It is the reason you want to install Windows first, then Linux. When installing Linux, GRUB will detect your Windows and provide you the means to choose which OS you want to boot, as @ryanvade described. If you install Linux first and then Windows, the Windows bootloader will not do this for you... meaning you can't boot Linux.

There are more difficult ways to go about this, but why fight it? Install Windows, shrink the partition to leave room for Linux, then install Linux. Good luck!
 

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