Creating a Persistent Linux Unit on a Two-Partition Disk: A Guide for Tech Support

Creating a Two-Partition Disk: Guide for Tech Support

This guide will walk you through the process of creating a two-partition disk, with one partition dedicated to a Windows Recovery Image (32GB FAT32 partition) and the other partition set up as a persistent Linux unit.

Prerequisites

• A computer with a free disk space of at least 250GB
• A partitioning tool such as GParted (recommended) or MiniTool Partition Wizard
• Live Linux USB or DVD (e.g., Ubuntu)

Step 1: Boot from Live Linux

1. Insert the Live Linux USB or DVD into your computer and restart your system.
2. Enter the BIOS settings and change the boot order to prioritize the USB or DVD drive.
3. Save the changes and exit the BIOS. Your computer should now boot from the Live Linux media.

Step 2: Launch GParted

1. Once you've booted into the Live Linux environment, open a terminal and type sudo apt-get update to update the package list.
2. Install GParted by typing sudo apt-get install gparted.
3. Search for and launch GParted from the applications menu.

Step 3: Create the Windows Recovery Image Partition

1. In GParted, ensure the correct disk is selected (the one with the free space).
2. Delete any existing partitions on the disk by right-clicking them and selecting "Delete."
3. Click the "New" button to create a new partition.
4. Set the size of the new partition to 32GB, select "FAT32" as the file system, and click "Add."
5. Apply the changes by clicking the "Apply" button at the top.

Step 4: Create the Linux Partition

1. Still in GParted, create a new partition using the remaining free space on the disk.
2. Select the file system for your Linux distribution (e.g., ext4 for Ubuntu).
3. Mark the partition as "bootable" if it will be the primary Linux boot partition.
4. Apply the changes and exit GParted.

Step 5: Install Linux

1. Restart your computer and boot from the Live Linux media again.
2. Run the Linux installer (e.g., Ubuntu Installation) and follow the prompts to install Linux on the newly created partition.
3. During the installation process, select the Linux partition you created earlier as the target for the installation.
4. During the partitioning step, ensure that the Windows Recovery Image partition is not touched.
5. Complete the installation process and reboot your system.

Step 6: Configure Grub

1. Boot into your newly installed Linux system.

2. Open a terminal and type sudo fdisk -l to list the disk partitions.

3. Identify the device path for your Linux partition (e.g., /dev/sda1) and the Windows Recovery Image partition (e.g., /dev/sda2).

4. Edit the Grub configuration file by typing sudo nano /etc/default/grub.

5. Modify the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line to include persistent followed by the UUID of your Linux partition (you can find the UUID by typing sudo blkid). The modified line should look something like this:

   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="persistent=UUID=<your-linux-partition-UUID>"
   

6. Save the changes and exit the editor.

7. Update Grub by typing sudo update-grub.

8. Reboot your system to test the persistent Linux unit.

References

• GParted
• MiniTool Partition Wizard
• Creating a Windows Recovery Drive
• Persistent Linux USB
• Ubuntu Installation Guide