When to partition? (+ other Qs)

My next laptop should be in my hands sometime in late June, so in the meantime i'm trying to get a grip on the concept of partitioning for a Windows/Linux dual boot situation. (Ubuntu is probably the distribution i'll be using)

As I understand it, the Ubuntu LiveCD includes GParted in it -- will this be an adequate solution to resizing the Windows partition, and then creating a documents/swap/home/Linux one?

Or would I be advised to burn GParted to a disk and handle all of that before hand.

(I also realize Windows could go for a defragment before attempting such a thing).

The partitions I have in mind are:
Windows (NTFS)
Documents (ext3)
/home (ext3)
Linux (ext3)
swap

Sizes to be determined, since I'm not sure how big a hard drive i'll be willing to pay for.

I also don't know if a documents-only partition is best off as FAT32 or ext3. ext3 seems to be the better filesystem, but given a program like FS Drive is that a better solution than Windows' native support of FAT32?
It fragments over time (among other limitations), and i'd like to avoid that.

Finally, will Ubuntu itself know where to put GRUB so it successfully tricks Windows into thinking its the only O.S.? As far as that goes, I have no idea where GNU GRUB belongs to make everything work smoothly.

(P.S., tried to search, but not all my questions were answered -- hence this topic)

 

Yup, You anwsered your own question.

I personally would not trust the Ubuntu install Gparted to handle a resize.
I have always used a Gparted Disc.
I never defrag before a resize, but I guess it sure wouldn't hurt.

As for the Partition Sizes and setup, this should be users prefrence. You seem to have the formats right.

There are many option for Grub. I personally like to install it on the same partition as Ubuntu. Check my post here if interested ... http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=119811

There is about a 30% chance that installing Grub on the MBR(Windows Partition) can screw up your Windows.

 

I use the Ubuntu Gparted Install CD to repartition all the time; however, I run "sudo gparted" and do any changes before I perform the installation

 

I have no idea where you get that figure from. Installing GRUB to the MBR is the method 95% of Linux distros advise. If there was a failure rate like that, it would not be the preferred solution. It would more likely be < 1%. The MBR is not on the Windows partition, it's the area of the hard drive reserved for boot instructions.

And, in the unlikely event it does screw up, you pop in a windows CD and type fixmbr, nothing inside Windows is changed by GRUB.

 

Yes Linux distros advise Grub to the MBR, but there are ALOT of cases were people install the regular way(Grub to MBR) and their MBR and/or Windows boot gets screwed up. FIXMBR does not work all the time. Even when Grub is working, booting to windows had problems for many. The ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt is just one potential problem when trying to boot into windows after Ubuntu(linux) install. Most including myself have not been able to fix it, so it took reinstalling windows over again.

Not saying Grub is a problem, but situations do happen more times than unlikely. And for any one new to Ubuntu or another Linux distro, they should be very cautious about the problems that can arise and the possibility of reinstalling Windows when loading GRUB to the MBR.

I would recommend for any one trying out linux to try this safe method http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=119811 because there is a 30% chance IMO that installing GRUB to MBR it will give you a problem with booting Windows.(mostly happens on first time install for some strange reason). And for a Newbie thats going to suck bigtime and will most likely have to reinstall Windows, and then you have a slight chance of messing up Grub by reinstall Windows. It's just better and easier to have Grub on the same partition as Ubuntu and keep every thing separate.

I'm speaking from my own experience I had to go through when I started messing with Linux, and the many forums, posts, blogs and sites I read.

 

Thanks for all the help so far

One other thing...apparently since Windows won't support EFI (only BIOS), I can only make 4 primary partitions to a single hard drive? I just want to be sure on that limitation. It really isn't that big a deal, but for future reference...

And a last question: the GParted LiveCD screenshot shows the label of the partitions -- such as /boot and /. Is this necessary when setting file format of the partitions, or can I just go ahead and size the partitions for Linux and assign a file format? Or are they mounted during the Ubuntu install?

Thanks all in advance.