[PLUG] partition question

[Bill Barry]

On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 4:39 PM, Randy Stapilus <stapilus at ridenbaugh.com> wrote:
> I've decided to try installing a Linux Mint, and it's been going well
> so far. I'm just getting into the partitioning, and it has asked me
> something that makes me nervous. I'm going for a dual boot with XP,
> which has already been on the machine.
>
> Mint's installer has gotten to "starting up the partitioner." I now
> have in front of me a box that says, "Unmount partitions that are in
> use?" It says, "The installer has detected that the following disks
> have mounted partitions: /dev/sdb  Do you want the installer to try
> to unmount the partitions on these disks before continuing? If you
> leave them mounted, you will not be able to create, delete or resize
> partitions on these disks, but you may be able to install to exiting
> partitions there."
>
> Yes and no buttons below, with the "no" indicating default.

This step of unmounting is not dangerous, but you are wandering into
dangerous territory. Are you going to resize a partition, or use an
empty partition that already exists?  Just make sure you don't delete
the partition containing your XP installation, but only resize it.

Bill