This is a new user's overview of the whys and hows of partitions, including a review of tools on the Knoppix 3.4, Mepis and Woody CDs. The goal is to make installing Linux easier by documenting basic concepts and references to more information.
Partitioning a hard drive is one of the more difficult tasks confronting the new Linux user. The easiest case, a GUI with an "automatic" button, can confuse and frighten someone who's used to a single large partition that's always shown as a subset of the "desktop". There are BIOS and bootloader issues to consider and working with existing Microsoft partitions can be dangerous.
It's my hope that this lecture will demystify partition creation. With just a little information, things start to look much easier. There are many excellent tools to get the job done and to rescue you when things go wrong. Armed with basic concepts and references documented here, the new user should be able to install any distribution onto any x86 computer.
If you get confused, relax and don't worry about it. The easy way to protect yourself is to make sure you have nothing to use. Dual booting is discouraged for this reason. It works, but you can get into trouble. If your computer is dead already, you can use the Live CD tools reviewed here to save your data and then make a nice Linux system. If not use another hard drive or another computer for your second operating system. Most modern distributions take care of partitioning for you. This is especially true for the SIG's current newbie favorite, Mepis.