Installing linux side by side with windows

Installing Linux for first time

So here you comes for your first Linux installation. No matter which distribution you are using
procedure is common. I have divided installation into two parts one for new bies and other for
users which are using linux for a while. So there are two categories one is Basic and Other is advance
you can say. So lets move on to your way buddy:

Basic Installation


I assume you have a windows operating system install up and running. Your first task is to make a free
10Gb partition from your drives,this has to be done by you using disk management utility in windows.

Making pendrive bootable for installation

If you have image file then you have to burn a CD or make a bootable USB. To make a bootable ubuntu usb download unetbootin software from here. Now using this software give the path to image file and USB drive to make bootableUSB drive.

Booting from CD or USB Disk drive
Here I am installing ubuntu 10.04 LTS(Lucid) and I have screen shots for you so boot your cd/dvd or USB drive from your machine. You can install any linux OS as shown below ,graphics will be different but basics will be the same.

1. After booting you will see something like this

2. Choose installation option or if you want to try without changing any thing choose the try option ,here I have choosen the installation option.

3. Choose your region.

4. choose keyboard layout generally use the default option

5. Specify the partitions manually,choose this option carefully otherwise you may loose your data.

6. Choose the partition which you have made out of the windows drive i.e the 10 gb partition you have carved out and click on add 'option' or 'change' option if you have formatted in windows.

7. Set the options as shown below,make the partition primary or extended,choose ext3/ext4/ext2 file system and mount the partition as /,this is similar to C: drive in windows.

8. Choose the partition you have prepared and click on forward and it will show a warning regarding swap ignore it and click on forward.

9. Now insert some basic elements regarding your system and move forward and your installation will start :

We are finished with basic installation and you don't have to worry about your windows operating system ,it will be shown to you in the list while booting and you have the option to choose which OS to run.