You now need to decide where you want to install the Mandrakelinux operating system on your hard drive. If your hard drive is empty or if an existing operating system is using all the available space you will have to partition the drive. Basically, partitioning a hard drive means to logically divide it to create the space needed to install your new Mandrakelinux system.
Because the process of partitioning a hard drive is usually irreversible and can lead to data losses, partitioning can be intimidating and stressful for the inexperienced user. Fortunately, DrakX includes a wizard which simplifies this process. Before continuing with this step, read through the rest of this section and above all, take your time.
Depending on the configuration of your hard drive, several options are available:
. This option will perform an automatic partitioning of your blank drive(s). If you use this option there will be no further prompts.
. The wizard has detected one or more existing Linux partitions on your hard drive. If you want to use them, choose this option. You will then be asked to choose the mount points associated with each of the partitions. The legacy mount points are selected by default, and for the most part it's a good idea to keep them.
. If Microsoft Windows is installed on your hard drive and takes all the space available on it, you will have to create free space for GNU/Linux. To do so, you can delete your Microsoft Windows partition and data (see “Erase entire disk” solution) or resize your Microsoft Windows FAT or NTFS partition. Resizing can be performed without the loss of any data, provided you've previously defragmented the Windows partition. Backing up your data is strongly recommended. Using this option is recommended if you want to use both Mandrakelinux and Microsoft Windows on the same computer.
Before choosing this option, please understand that after this procedure, the size of your Microsoft Windows partition will be smaller than when you started. You'll have less free space under Microsoft Windows to store your data or to install new software.
. If you want to delete all data and all partitions present on your hard drive and replace them with your new Mandrakelinux system, choose this option. Be careful, because you won't be able to undo this operation after you confirm.
. This option appears when the hard drive is entirely taken by Microsoft Windows. Choosing this option will simply erase everything on the drive and begin fresh, partitioning everything from scratch.
. Choose this option if you want to manually partition your hard drive. Be careful –– it is a powerful but dangerous choice and you can very easily lose all your data. That's why this option is really only recommended if you have done something like this before and have some experience. For more instructions on how to use the DiskDrake utility, refer to the Managing Your Partitions section in the Starter Guide.