How to dual-boot Linux Mint Debian Edition and Windows 7

This is what the new partition creation window looks like. Notice that by default, GParted will want to create this partition as a primary partition. Because the system allows us to create a maximum of four primary partitions and because we intend to create four partitions just for LMDE, it becomes necessary to create this as an extended partition. An extended partition makes it possible to create many more partitions under it than the traditional maximum of four. The thing to remember is that the partitions created under the extended partition are known as logical partitions.

Numbering of logical partitions starts at 5, and as we will see further down, the first logical partition will always be /dev/sda5, even when the extended partition it is created under is /dev/sda3.

To create the extended partition, the only change you need to make here is to select “Extended Partition” from the “Create as” dropdown menu. Add.

Select the unallocated space under the newly created extended partition, and click on the new partition button to start creating logical partitions.

Our first partition, which will be /dev/sda5, will be mounted as /boot, and is where boot-related programs will be installed. On a new installation of LMDE, only about 15 MB of the space allocated to this partition is used. Note that as the kernel is upgraded, the space used here will grow. So if you intend to use this installation for a long time, try to allocate as much as you can afford to. 500 MB is now the norm. For file system, you may select ext2 or a journaling file system except btrfs. Add.

The second partition will be used for swap, which is the space that will be used as virtual memory. Most distributions, depending on available disk space, tend to allocate about 2 GB to it, which is the size allocated in this example. Add.

The third partition will be mounted at /, the root file system. This is where almost everything will be installed. How much space should you then allocate to it? For guidance, a new installation of LMDE takes up less than 3 GB of disk space. Therefore, anything more than 3 GB should be enough. If you have disk space to spare, be generous and allocate 6 GB to 10 GB. Add.

The last partition, which should be allocated all the available disk space, will be mounted at /home. Add.

After all the partitions have been created, click on the arrow as shown to apply the changes.

Then exit from GParted.

Back on the main installation window, click on the Refresh button to see the new partitions. For each LMDE partition, double click on it or right click and select Edit from the context menu. The task is to set the mount point and file system.