Appendix C. MANUALLY PARTITIONING YOUR HARD DISK

When you're partitioning your hard disk with the Ubuntu installer, the first two options (use the whole disk and resize an existing partition) should cover most eventualities. They're both discussed in Chapter 2. But if you're in a geekier mood, there are a few fancy ways to carve up your disk space. For example, you can create a shared data partition so your files can be shared between Windows and Ubuntu, or you can make a separate partition for your /home directory so you can reinstall Ubuntu (or install a different Linux distro) without having to fully back up all of your files.