Understanding Partitioning

Chances are, if you're reading this book, your PC already has Windows installed on it. This won't present a problem. In most cases, Fedora can live happily alongside Windows in what's called a dual-boot setup, where you can choose at startup which operating system to run. However, installing Fedora means that Windows must make certain compromises. It needs to cohabit your hard disk with another operating system—something it isn't designed to do.

The main issue with such a situation is that Windows needs to shrink and make some space available for Fedora (unless you install a second hard disk, which is discussed later in this chapter). Fedora isn't able to use the same file system as Windows, and it needs its own separately defined part of the disk. Actually, it requires more than one part of the disk. Each of these parts is known as a partition. All of this can be handled automatically by the Fedora installation routine, but it's important that you know what happens.