Preparing your computer to install Linux

It is entirely possible to have both Windows (or Mac OS) and Linux installed on the same computer at the same time (this is called "dual boot"). Each operating system just needs its own divided section (a "partition" in technical terms) on the hard drive.

Before you go any further, make a backup of all the files on your computer that you do not want to risk losing. You probably will never need this backup but you are about to make a major change to your computer and Murphy's Law says that you only need a backup when you don't have one!

What you are going to do is reduce the size of the partition that your current operating system is installed on to make space for Linux. Think of your hard drive as your house and thus the partitions on your hard drive as the rooms in your house. Special software can change the size of your rooms or create new rooms for you. This software can "push" the walls without damaging the contents of the room. However, since this is a fairly major piece of renovation to your house you should make a backup first! You can read more about hard drives and partitions at PCWorld.

Partition Magic is a very good piece of software that you can use to resize your partitions in Windows. Partition Magic is not free but it is very very good. Alternatively, both Mandrake and Suse Linux include partition resizing in their installation routine. (You may need to go in to the advanced or custom installation routine for these features though.)

The size of partition you need to create will depend on the Linux distribution that you are installing and the amount of free space that you have on your hard drive. I would suggest a minimum of 5 gigabytes (Gb). You do not need to format the space that Linux will be installed on as the installation routine will do this for you. When you view the partitions on your hard drive the one that is described as "FAT" or "NTFS" (or maybe "windows" or "C") will most probably be the one with your current operating system on it.

These tools are normally graphical and will have a diagram of your whole hard drive with each partition inside. Select the partition you want to resize, choose the "resize"option, enter the new size and let the program do it magic! Although this is a very general description, these are the steps you will need to go through.

You can also read more on preparing to move your computer to Linux at Toms Hardware Guide.

Once you have created the spare partition space you are then ready to install Linux.