I'm going to put Linux on my laptop, do I need any of these partitions for the system?

[efish1824]

I'm planning on putting Linux on my laptop because Windows is making it run too hot and thermal throttle (to 0.75 gHz). Are any of the disk partitions below required for the system, so I know to only delete and format certain partitions?

 

[Coolmaster]

You should reduce your OS (C:) Partition and put the Linux installation on that, if you want dual boot. If you just want Linux then you can delete all of them.

[Electronics Wizardy]

those are windows boot and recovery partitions, linux will make is own partitions. Just wipe the drive and install linux and let liux do the defaults.

 

but linux won't run any cooler, and often has worse battery life.

[efish1824]

55 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

those are windows boot and recovery partitions, linux will make is own partitions. Just wipe the drive and install linux and let liux do the defaults.

 

but linux won't run any cooler, and often has worse battery life.

Thanks, when I do install Ubuntu, I'll be installing TLP, which is a Linux battery tuner. Windows also just runs slow on my laptop, so I'm hoping to get more life out of it by installing Ubuntu

[charlie_root]

tlp works very well. I have found that if you use tlp and stick with a lightweight window manager or lighter desktop environment, you should get better battery life than with Windows in most cases.

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 minutes ago, efish1824 said:

Thanks, when I do install Ubuntu, I'll be installing TLP, which is a Linux battery tuner. Windows also just runs slow on my laptop, so I'm hoping to get more life out of it by installing Ubuntu

From my experince with a lot of laptop, linux rarely getts better battery life, or runs much faster on most hardwre. Modern windows is pretty well optimize. Give it a shot, but a clean install of windows will likely give about the same improvements.

[niwatori1]

Have you cleaned the dust out of the heat sinks? reapplied thermal paste?

Also how old is the laptop? Could just be old TIM and clogged vents..

Don't install linux over other issues, Fix them first.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

those are windows boot and recovery partitions, linux will make is own partitions. Just wipe the drive and install linux and let liux do the defaults.

 

but linux won't run any cooler, and often has worse battery life.

That wasnt what it was when I installed xubuntu. I had to create my own partitions.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

That wasnt what it was when I installed xubuntu. I had to create my own partitions.

most distros will auto make partitions when you do a fresh install when you select a drive. You just have to tell it the drive you want. You can do a custom partition layout, but no reason to for most users.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

most distros will auto make partitions when you do a fresh install when you select a drive. You just have to tell it the drive you want. You can do a custom partition layout, but no reason to for most users.

thats weird. it wouldnt let me bo past the drive selection screen w/o partitioning myself, and I couldnt see a spot to do that.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, HelpfulTechWizard said:

thats weird. it wouldnt let me bo past the drive selection screen w/o partitioning myself, and I couldnt see a spot to do that.

Pretty sure they have a auto setup, Ive done a ton of ubuntu and variants installs, and auto partition basically always works.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Caroline said:

really? that one time I had to install linux it was an absolute nightmare because it refused to start no matter what I did and the problem was... partitions, you have to make /boot /root and /swap by yourself because the installer is kind of dumb and doesn't knows how to do it even if you choose 'use the entire disk'

what a mess.

I'm using Lubuntu btw

all the large distros like debian, ubuntu, mint, fedora, centos, and others all have a auto partition tool, so just select the drive, and it will make all of those partitions for you.

[piemadd]

I would recommend installing Zorin Lite as it is not only lightweight and small in physical size, it is one of the easier install processes which I have gone through regarding linux. Also some people here are saying linux battery life is worse for them and stuff like that, but it really depends on the distro. If you go and install a super heavy distro (like Kali Linux), theres a good chance your computer won't run as well, which is why I recommend Zorin Lite.

[pythonmegapixel]

5 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

From my experince with a lot of laptop, linux rarely getts better battery life, or runs much faster on most hardwre. Modern windows is pretty well optimize. Give it a shot, but a clean install of windows will likely give about the same improvements.

I run Linux on my laptop, and I don't think it's a huge amount faster in raw performance terms - and of course the system still hangs if I have too much open at once (despite what some may say, Linux is not magic and does still require RAM )

 

However, it feels snappier to me because it's far less bloated.

For example, in Windows when I search for an application, it has to populate the search window with all of Bing's advertising crap, which takes time to fetch, even if it's not slowing the system down. Similarly with Live Tiles - which are a dumb feature which have to be turned off one by one because there's no single toggle for whatever reason. Additionally I find that Windows takes far longer to log in and load the desktop.

 

In other words, most major things are consistent in speed across both OSes. But basic tasks are a lot snappier, and that adds up.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Operating Systems