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# Partitioning

### Suggested Partitioning

In this screen you can see the content of your hard drive(s) along with the DrakX partitioning proposals for where to install Mageia.

The actual options available from those shown below will vary according to the layout and content of your particular hard drive(s).

Main Options

- Use Existing Partitions

  If this option is available, then existing Linux compatible partitions have been found and may be used for the installation.

- Use Free Space

  If you have unused space on your hard drive then this option will use it for your new Mageia installation.

- Use Free Space on a Windows Partition

  If you have unused space on an existing Windows partition, the installer may offer to use it. This can be a useful way of making room for your new Mageia installation but see the warning below.

  With this option, the installer displays the remaining Windows partition in light blue and the proposed Mageia partition in dark blue with their intended sizes just underneath. You have the option to modify these sizes by clicking and dragging the gap between both partitions. See the following screenshot:

  ### Warning

  This involves shrinking the size of the Windows partition, and therefore is a risky operation, so you should make sure you have backed up all important files before proceeding.

  ### Important

  The partition must be "clean", meaning that Windows must have closed down correctly the last time it was used. It must also have been defragmented, although this is not a guarantee that all files in the partition have been moved out of the area that is about to be used for Mageia.

- Erase and use Entire Disk

  This option will allocate the entire drive for Mageia

  ### Warning

  This will erase ALL data on the selected hard drive. Take care! If you intend to use part of the disk for something else, or you already have data on the drive that you are not prepared to lose, then do not use this option.

- Custom Disk Partitioning

  This gives you complete control over the placing of the installation on your hard drive(s).

If you are not using the Custom disk partitioning option, then the installer will allocate the available space according to the following rules:

- If the total available space is less than 50 GB, then only one partition is created. This will be the `/` (root) partition.

- If the total available space is greater than 50 GB, then three partitions are created

  - 6/19 of the total available place is allocated to `/` with a maximum of 50 GB

  - 1/19 is allocated to `swap` with a maximum of 4 GB

  - the rest (at least 12/19) is allocated to `/home`

This means that from 160 GB or greater available space, the installer will create three partitions:

- 50 GB for `/`

- 4 GB for `swap`

- and the remainder for `/home`

### Note

If you are using a UEFI system, the ESP (EFI System Partition) will be automatically detected - or created if it does not exist yet - and mounted on `/boot/EFI`. The Custom disk partitioning option is the only one that allows to check it has been correctly done.

If you are using a Legacy (also known as BIOS) system with a GPT partitioned disk, you need to create a BIOS boot partition if it doesn't already exist. It should be about 1 MiB with no mount point. It can be created with the Installer, under Custom disk partitioning, like any other partition. Be sure to select “BIOS boot partition” for filesystem type.

See DiskDrake for information on how to proceed.

### Important

Some newer drives are now using 4096 byte logical sectors, instead of the previous standard of 512. Due to lack of available hardware, the partitioning tool used in the installer has not been tested with such a drive.

Some SSD devices now use an erase block size over 1 MB. If you have such a device we suggest that you partition the drive in advance, using an alternative partitioning tool like gparted, and to use the following settings:

- Align to = MiB

- Free space preceding (MiB) = 2

Also make sure all partitions are created using an even number of megabytes.

### Choose the mount points

Here you see the Linux partitions that have been found on your computer. If you don't agree with the DrakX suggestions, you can change the mount points yourself.

- To the left of the drop-down menus is a list of available partitions. For example: `sda` is a hard drive - and `5` is a partition number, followed by the (capacity, mount point, filesystem type) of the partition.

- If you have several partitions, you can choose various different mount points from the drop down menu, such as `/`, `/home` and `/var`. You can even make your own mount points, for instance `/video` for a partition where you want to store your films, or perhaps `/Data` for all your data files.

- For any partitions that you don't need to make use of, you can leave the mount point field blank.

### Warning

If you make any changes here, ensure you still have a `/` (root) partition.

### Tip

If you are not sure what to choose, click Previous to go back and then tick Custom disk partitioning, where you can click on a partition to see its type and size.

If you are sure the mount points are correct, click on Next, and choose whether you only want to format the partition suggested by DrakX, or more.

### Confirm hard disk to be formatted

- Click on Previous if you are at all unsure about your choice.

- Click on Next to proceed if you are sure that it is OK to erase every partition, every operating system and all data that might be on that hard disk.

### Custom Disk Partitioning with DiskDrake

- Modify the layout of your disk(s) here. You can remove or create partitions, change the filesystem or size of a partition and even view their details before you start.

- There is a tab at the top for every detected hard disk (or other storage device, like a USB key), for example: `sda`, `sdb`, `sdc` etc.

- For all other actions: click on the desired partition first. Then view it, or choose a filesystem and a mount point, resize it or wipe it. Expert mode provides more options such as to label (name) a partition, or to choose a partition type.

- Continue until you have adjusted everything to your satisfaction, then click Done when you're ready.

### Warning

1. Take care with the Clear all option, use it only if you are sure you want to wipe all partitions on the selected storage device.

2. If you wish to use encryption on your `/` partition you must ensure that you have a separate `/boot` partition. The encryption option for the `/boot` partition must NOT be set, otherwise your system will be unbootable.

### Important

- If you are installing Mageia on a UEFI system, check that an ESP (EFI System Partition) is present and correctly mounted on `/boot/EFI`. See Figure 1 below.

- If you are installing Mageia on a Legacy/GPT system, check that a BIOS boot partition is present and of the correct type. See Figure 2 below.

Figure 1. EFI System Partition

Figure 2. BIOS boot partition

### Formatting

Here you can choose which partition(s) you wish to format. Any data on partitions not marked for formatting will be preserved.

Usually, at least the partitions that DrakX selected need to be formatted.

Click on Advanced to choose the partitions you want to check for so-called bad blocks

### Tip

If you're not sure you have made the right choice, you can click on Previous, again on Previous and then on Custom to get back to the main screen, where you can choose to view details of your partitions.

When you are confident about the selections, click on Next to continue.

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- Select and use ISOs
  - Introduction
  - Media
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- Boot Mageia as Live system
  - Booting the medium
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- Configure your Timezone
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- Testing Mageia as Live system
  - Live mode
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- Partitioning
  - Suggested Partitioning
  - Choose the mount points
  - Confirm hard disk to be formatted
  - Custom Disk Partitioning with DiskDrake
  - Formatting
- Keep or delete unused material
- Bootloader
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