This document belongs to Manual Full System Encryption (with Extras): Overview.

1. Determine what you need


If you do not understand partitioning, please first carefully read through the Partitioning topic.


You will be dealing with sizes measured in MB (megabytes) and GB (gigabytes). A GB is 1,000 times larger than a MB. So, 20GB = 20,000MB.

You'll also see the terms MiB and GiB instead of MB and GB. A GiB is 1,024 times as large as a MiB. For the purposes of this document, the difference between MB and MiB (or GB and GiB) is unimportant and so it doesn't matter which measurement you use.


Before having a look at the physical machine, you need to determine your minimum requirements for your Ubuntu system.

Add all these figures together. If you have a separate drive for data, you can add up only the first four items and place your data on the separate drive.

In the examples that follow, data will go onto a second drive, and so we add up only the first four as follows.

ESP

99MB (because Windows made it that size)

Boot

500MB

Root

30GB = 30,000MB

Swap

8GB = 8,000MB

Total

39GB approximately; it doesn't have to be exact; but better round up than round down

2. Find out what you already have

This chapter will guide you through discovering what space you already have. You will look at your system drive, which might be your only drive, and any other drives that you might have.

2.1. Windows

Press Start and type "computer management". Open the Computer Management application.

Select Storage > Disk Management. You'll see something like this (it may take several seconds to display):ComputerManagement.png

What you see in this example is the primary system disk "Disk 0", which contains four partitions and one unallocated area (i.e. without a partition). In the screenshot, it looks like only three partitions and an unallocated area, because Windows completely hides one of them, partition 3.

'Number

Size

Name

Purpose

1

450MB

Recovery

Windows uses this for recovery

2

99MB

EFI System (ESP)

Required to boot a computer with UEFI

3

16MB

MS reserved

This is hidden! You can't see it from Windows

4

23.86GB

Windows 10 (C:)

The C: drive. The name of the file system is "Windows 10"

35.59GB

An unallocated area (there is no partition here)

You can also see an unused disk, "Disk 1", which is 5GB, and the DVD drive, "CD-ROM 0".

The important bits here are partition 4 (the C: drive), size 23.86GB, and the unallocated area, size 35.59GB.

Of course, this is an example. Your actual figures will be different.

2.2. Linux

Open the Dash and type "gparted"1. Select the icon to open GPartEd (Gnome Partition Editor).

You will see something like this. gparted-Windows-only.png

What you see in this example is the primary system disk /dev/sda, which contains four partitions and one unallocated area.

'Number

Size

Name

Purpose

1

450MB

Basic data

Windows uses this for recovery

2

99MB

EFI System (ESP)

Required to boot a computer with UEFI

3

16MB

MS reserved

For Windows only to use

4

23.86GB

Basic data

The C: drive. The name of the file system is "Windows 10"

35.59GB

(No name)

An unformatted partition (i.e. it has no file system)

The important bits here are partition 4, size 23.86GB, and the unallocated area, size 35.59GB.

If you select the drop-down menu at the top right, where it says /dev/sda, you can see /dev/sdb if one exists.

Of course, this is an example. Your actual figures will be different. Your naming conventions also could be different, e.g. /dev/nvme0n1 instead of /dev/sda.

3. Decide how to partition the drive

In my example, I want to use 25GB. Fortunately for me, there is already a spare unused area of 35.59GB available on the drive, which is unused, so I'll use that.

But, your situation is almost certainly different. For example:

You will need to release space on your main drive for the system as calculated in the initial determination.

Where will the space come from:

Part of your decision will be to decide if the data goes in the same partition as the system, or in a separate partition altogether. If you have sufficient space, it is entirely a personal decision.

3.1. Contiguous system space

contiguous

Space on the drive is said to be contiguous if it is unbroken. If it is split into two or more separate parts, it is not contiguous.

  • The EFI System Partition (ESP) does not have to be in any specific location.
    • If the ESP already exists, just leave it where it is.
    • If you want paranoid mode, prepare a USB stick, put the ESP on there and once installation is complete, be sure to make a clone of the USB stick (because you will be unable to boot if the original USB stick fails). This is an advanced topic, which these instructions do not support.
      Mentally-Deranged-Smiley-Face-Silhouette.png

  • The spare space for your system partition (Boot, Root and Swap) must be contiguous on your system drive.
    • If the system partition will also contain the data, it still needs to be contiguous.
  • If the data goes in a separate partition from the system, the data partition doesn't need to be contiguous with the system.
  • If you have sufficient space for the system, but it's not contiguous, refer to Support in Troubleshooting for how to ask for help. Although it is possible to move partitions using gparted, doing so can cause problems with a Windows system.

    3.2. The decision

    Before you proceed, decide where you want the following to go.

    If you are unsure how to decide, refer to Support in Troubleshooting for how to ask for help.

    4. Release space

    If you are lucky enough to have a spare partition, you need to check that it is already empty, because any data on it will be lost! Then delete the partition.

    However, if you aren't that lucky, you will need to shrink the size of your existing partition in order to make space. If you have a data partition, you can consider shrinking it instead of the system partition.

    What follows is a basic guide to shrinking and deleting partitions. If you need further detail, look up how to shrink, delete and move partitions on your favourite search engine, YouTube, or wherever else you might prefer. Beware: moving partitions can mess up your system.

    4.1. Partitioning in Windows

    You will need to have opened the Computer Management application.

    4.2. Partitioning in Linux

    You will need to have opened gparted.

    5. Next

    Now that you have decided what space you need, and cleared it from your system drive and (if appropriate) your second drive, you are ready for installation. Return to the Overview and continue.


    1. If you are familiar with Ubuntu, you might wonder why we are using gparted instead of Disks (gnome-disks). This is because Disks doesn't have the functionality that we require later. (1)

    ManualFullSystemEncryption/OverviewPartitionPreparation (last edited 2018-08-23 17:52:26 by paddy-landau)