How does the automatic installation work with free space?

Question

I want to install Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) I have Windows 7 installed, so I unallocated some disk space (~20gb).

I have used other versions of Ubuntu and in those versions there was an option "Use Free Space" and if I check that option it installs Ubuntu in the free space.

Now for the installation of Ubuntu 13.04 there are just 3 options which are "install alongside Windows 7", "Remove Windows 7 and install Ubuntu" and "Something else"

So my query is, if I select the "install alongside Windows 7" option does it automatically install Ubuntu into the unallocated space?

Solution 1

Yes, the "Install Ubuntu alongside Windows 7" option will install Ubuntu in the free, unallocated space, provided that it can be created as a partition (for example, if you already have 4 primary partitions + unpartitioned space, Ubuntu will not be able to install).

The "Install Ubuntu alongside Windows 7" will usually reserve space for a swap partition. This space is usually the size of your RAM. So, for example, if your RAM is 4GB, then picking the "alongside" option will automatically partition your 20GB unpartitioned space to 16GB for the root partition (Ubuntu), and 4GB for swap.

Solution 2

I can't say that whether install along with windows 7 will use the unallocated space or not.

Better way to install would be to custom partition by choosing the option- 'Something else'

Then the Gparted application will open up and you can see the partitions and unallocated space on the disk(s).

Simplest Configuration- 1 swap partition 2 gb 1 / partion 18 gb( all space left unallocated)

To achieve the above right click the unallocated space, click on new. Select partition size as 2048 mb, partiton type as 'linux-swap' click on create.

Then right click the remaining unallocated space left and select new. Partiton size- as it is (it should be around 18000 mb). partition type- ext4 mount point - /

Thats it for the partitioning. Click on install to proceed furthur.

Comments

[Alaa Ali]

You're welcome. Don't forget to mark an answer as your accepted one.

[Yibo Yang]

can confirm this is what happened; using "install Ubuntu alongside Windows", Ubuntu automatically installed to the free space I allocated using Windows disk manager; in particular it created one swap partition (same size as RAM) and another partition for root/home (using the rest of the free space)