Installing Linux mint side by side?

[americo24]

If you haven't figured out, I am trying to get Linux Mint 8 on my laptop and using the side by side option (supposedly it lets you keep your previous Os) now when I am almost about to go through the installation (when Im about to install It shows a warning (disclaimer?)

Language: English
Keyboard layout: USA
Name: Eric
Login name: eric
Location: America/Los_Angeles
Migration Assistant:



If you continue, the changes listed below will be written to the disks.
Otherwise, you will be able to make further changes manually.

WARNING: This will destroy all data on any partitions you have removed as
well as on the partitions that are going to be formatted.

The partition tables of the following devices are changed:
SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda)

The following partitions are going to be formatted:
partition #5 of SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda) as ext4
partition #6 of SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda) as swap

If I read it right, it is still doing to format my hard drive and I am not looking to format right now lol. Any suggestions?

[PizzaandWine]

I think that it would successfully install side by side with that warning. What it says is that it will change the partition table (because you are adding a new partition) and then will create and format partitions 5 and 6 for use with linux. (So yes, it will format your hard drive, but only parts of it, not its entirety.) I imagine your previous os (windows?) is on the first few partitions, likely one is the main partition, one is a recovery, and another a backup. You can double check this by booting the live Mint cd and using gparted to check the current partition lay out of your internal drive.

Of course, I would not recommend installing side by side unless you have a full backup of your previous os / documents ect. This is simply because editing partitions always entails the possibility of a screw up (either on the user end, or in the actual process.) That said, I've done it without a hiccup many a time (not on mint, but on another distro that uses the same installer.)

G'luck with your install. Let us know how it goes.

[americo24]

I think that it would successfully install side by side with that warning. What it says is that it will change the partition table (because you are adding a new partition) and then will create and format partitions 5 and 6 for use with linux. (So yes, it will format your hard drive, but only parts of it, not its entirety.) I imagine your previous os (windows?) is on the first few partitions, likely one is the main partition, one is a recovery, and another a backup. You can double check this by booting the live Mint cd and using gparted to check the current partition lay out of your internal drive.

Of course, I would not recommend installing side by side unless you have a full backup of your previous os / documents ect. This is simply because editing partitions always entails the possibility of a screw up (either on the user end, or in the actual process.) That said, I've done it without a hiccup many a time (not on mint, but on another distro that uses the same installer.)

G'luck with your install. Let us know how it goes.

Thanks alot for your information, I made a back up of my windows (well atleast the important files) and I installed side by side, it shrinked my partion on windows and now everything is good. Thanks again.

[PizzaandWine]

Glad to hear it, hope you're enjoying Mint. I started out the same way as you...and now have ditched windows entirely (except the occasional boot for some GIS apps I can't run yet via wine.)