To partition now or not to partition???

[Benny]

I downloaded Ubuntu & plan to install it soon. For now I have a concern of how to partition my HD without loosing any data (if possible). I've read a little of Parted Magic for USB in TechRepublic's site & I'm wondering if it would be posible to make two partitions in my HD (one for Windows & the other for Ubuntu) in order to have two bootable operating systems. What keeps me backing off is the posibility of loosing sofware that I've accumulated with time which I concive valuable.
>>>Does anybody knows if it could be done? If the answer is yes, Parted Magic would do it?
The description of the sofware follows:
"Overview: Optimized at approximately 45MB, the Parted Magic OS employs core programs of GParted and Parted to handle partitioning tasks with ease, while featuring other useful programs (e.g. Partition Image, TestDisk, fdisk, sfdisk, dd, ddrescue, etc.) and an excellent set of documentation to benefit the user. An extensive collection of fileystem tools are also included, as Parted Magic supports the following: ext2, ext3, ext4, fat16, fat32, hfs, hfs+, jfs, linux-swap, ntfs, reiserfs, reiser4, and xfs.Version 3 is updated with: Linux 2.6.26, Parted 1.8.8, ntfsprogs-2.0.0, ntfs-3g-2712, and GParted-0.3.8; Uses Busybox for basic Unix commands and networking, and Firefox to surf the Web."

[Paul Komski]

The simplest approach is to backup any really important data beforehand and then simply run the Ubuntu install which will resize existing Windows partition(s) install itself in the liberated space and setup a boot menu. You only really need specialised partitioning tools if you want to setup a third party boot manager rather than use GRUB that comes with Ubuntu.

[Sylvander]

1. "To partition now or not to partition???"
Most definitely YES!

(a) It's a very good idea to keep [almost] all data files off the OS/Programs partitions.
Then when you restore an image of an OS partition, the data files are unaffected.
You could even re-format the OS partition[s] and re-install afresh, and those data files will still be there waiting for use.

(b) I go even further and separate different kinds of data files into different partitions.
You'll find yourself experiencing various spin-off advantages to this.

(c) It's a good idea to hold the data files on partitions with FILE SYSTEMS that the various OS's can access [Paul will know more about that].

(d) I go even further and make a small 1 GB partition [D:] to hold various personal data files and also files that Programs and the OS need to access to do their thing.
This means that if I restore an image of the OS partition [C:], I don't necessarily need to restore a matching copy of the D: partition.
That means the latest updates to the various data files remain.
e.g.
The Desktop, emails, address book, password vault auto-backups, My Documents, IE Favourites & Temporary Internet Files

(e) Image Backups of the OS partition[s] are best made from outside of Windows [using a program (that can work with USB) on a bootable floppy or optical disk], since that is capable of restoring the OS even when it is no longer capable of loading.

(f) It's unnecessary to make Image Backups of data partitions.
[Unless you want to keep historical copies of files]
I use the FREE version of SynBack to make 2nd [backup] copies of the data partitions to a folder on a partition on an external USB 2.0 connected HDD.
A restored image of the OS would normally include a working copy of a program like SyncBack, and that can then be used to backup or restore the data partitions.
EXAMPLE
I have a SyncBack 2nd copy of my E: partition held on my USB HDD.
I've just made changes to the UBCD4Win folder/files on E: and compiled a new copy of the UBCD4Win ISO file [for making the bootable CD].
If I find that doesn't work I'll just restore E: to the way it was before the change.
This only affects E:, not any of the other partition contents.
.

[Paul Komski]

By all means create a data partition in addition to your Windows partition(s) prior to installing Ubuntu and especially if you want to share files between Windows and Linux on a common partition. With a modern Ubuntu distro such a shared partition could be formatted as either FAT or NTFS.

I would just restate what was asked: "What keeps me backing off is the posibility of loosing sofware that I've accumulated with time which I concive valuable" and point out that ANY partitioning utilities can result in the loss of data - and that this is of particular note when this is valuable data. If it is programs that you need to avoid reinstalling etc then an image file (or a copy of the relevant partition) on removable media is a very good idea.

The only way to keep valuable data safe is to have it backed-up on removable media and stored away from the PC.

That said, there are very many approaches to partitioning drives particularly for use in multiboot environments but the simplest approach is as I outlined earlier. Creating extra partitions has many benefits (http://partition.radified.com/) but does increase the complexities involved - particularly for Linux n00bs.