I have nearly 500 GB drive space but can't install Ubuntu

Question

I was trying install Ubuntu 11.04 over and over again via USB driver but it often failed that it says my drive space isn't enough (4.4GB). However, my Windows partition has about 200 GB free space. I did a little experiment, changed the codes (learned from the Internet) for 4.4GB to 2 GB and even 0GB and it still said there wasn't enough free space.

Would anyone please give me a helping hand?

Answer 1

You need unallocated disk space to install Ubuntu to.

Your "free" disk space is part of the Windows system drive C: and cannot be used to install Ubuntu.

Use a partitioning utility that can resize NTFS partitions and shrink your C partition to make space for the Linux partitions. Make sure you have a backup of all your data beforehand.

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Alternatively, check out Wubi. It will install Ubuntu alongside Windows on the same partition.

Answer 2

First off, your C: reporting 200GB of free space under Windows is the problem. That space is reserved for Windows.

You need an unused partition, or be prepared to split a partition to make space for this install.

If you are not sure how to repartition a drive, don't - it can lose all your data. Simplest solution in that case would be to install it onto another drive, which is a cheap option anyway these days.

The codes bit you mention - not sure what that is.