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Gparted is indeed a wonderful partition manager. Quite intuitive, as you say. It’s also my favorite and I’d use it almost anywhere- but one caveat- after I had gparted format a partition NTFS, I would also make sure Windows gets a chance to reformat to NTFS over what gparted just did. Your comment about using Linux partitioning tools for Linux installs is right on the money. Same goes for Windows. Use their tool.

A couple of points- you should not expect to install a new video card where you have already installed a copy of Ubuntu, and then expect Ubuntu to still start up routinely. Ditto for partition work. Installing Ubuntu and then modifying partitions would bring major trouble.

Basically, the best strategy is to get Windows all installed and working well, then install Ubuntu. You would have a lot less grief if you let grub take over. There are some finesses you can do in that regard, but that’s above my pay grade.

I suggest you temporarily forget about Ubuntu and concentrate on getting Windows in good shape. Then reinstall Ubuntu onto the partition you want. Be sure to select Manual partitioning (‘advanced users only’). You sound like you pretty much know what you’re doing. Pay close attention to how all your partitions are set up and make sure the Ubuntu install reformats only where you are putting Linux root (“/”). BTW it would be a great idea to have a separate Ext3/Ext4 partition for “/home”. Your personal data and settings would then go in there, if you make one. Then if you later reinstall/ upgrade ubuntu, or install another Linux distro, your data in /home is still usable with the new OS. In that case, let gparted also format the partition for /home- but only that one first time. If you later upgrade the OS, you would surely not want /home formatted- you’d lose all your saved personal data.

EASEUS sees both of them but threatens me with deactivating the Win 7 partition if I go through with clicking on activate for the Ubuntu partition. So now you know how I got where I am…. Any non-GRUB solutions?

Your problem here is that probably only a small subset of Win users understands this “EASEUS” utility. It’s both a partitioner and a boot loader? Sounds a little like BootitNG, then. You would not be ‘threatened’ this way if you understood how grub works. Perhaps you are thinking that you need to change which partition is considered ‘active’ or bootable by Windows? I believe that grub lets that ‘active’ handle remain on the Win partition. It doesn’t matter to grub. It can make Ubuntu boot up just fine, regardless of the ‘active’ label. I think your main problem is trying to ‘force solutions’ onto Ubuntu/grub using Win utilities. This is understandable, you know Windows better. It’s your present frame of reference. If you instead adopted the attitude that grub is going to play fair with all OS’s and that grub is very capable, you might be able to give Ubuntu a fair try in a multi- booting environment. A fair try means to let grub install with Ubuntu and handle which OS’s boot. This may mean, BTW, removing your EASEUS utility if it indeed acts as a bootloader- prior to your Ubuntu reinstall.

In the final analysis, EASEUS may just be playing with the ‘active’ label so far as which partition is to be so- labeled. You may have gotten faint hearted at the last minute when EASEUS could have done this safely- toggled the ‘active’ marker from partition to partition, OS to OS. I really don’k know what that utility was up to. But I sure do find grub easy and reliable to use.

If you are interested, I can give you a url to a very friendly Linux support forum online. Those guys really know their stuff and can help you way better. I am still beginner/ intermediate level and have lots to learn.

P.S. If you installed Ubuntu and then either changed your video card or messed with partitions afterwards, there is a good chance that your “EASEUS” utility is looking at a bootable Windows and a copy of Ubuntu that you have rendered unbootable. My solution for this is to (1.) get your hardware changes finished and stable, (2.) set up all partitions first, (3.) finish Windows, (4.) reinstall Ubuntu, (5.) let grub take over.

You know how Windows sometimes cries for missing drivers after you make hardware changes, or reinstall the OS, right? Linux is just as touchy, if not more so. Cleaning up after such messes involves some finesse and a good knowledge of the Terminal (like the command line in Windows). For beginners, simpler just to reinstall the OS. That’s way easier in Linux than in Windows, BTW. You yourself have seen how fast and easy Ubuntu installs. And no activation nags- imagine that!

Your experiences will vary, in part, depending on your particular hardware. I have a lot of medium- old hardware. I found that Ubuntu through Feisty 7.04 recognized my older video cards just fine. Beyond that, no good for me until the release of Jaunty 9.04, then Ubuntu started recognizing my older video cards once again. BTW during that period, Linux Mint continued to work with this older hardware, as I remember. What those two couldn’t handle, Mandriva could get to work. In general, older hardware which can’t make the grade with newer Windows versions can definitely still have a long and useful life under Linux. That old hardware does not need to be thrown away.

Windows also has problems working with some of your hardware, sometimes. A lot of perfectly good hardware that worked fine with 98SE and Win2k would not work with XP. I have a Visioneer scanner in that category. Still works great under 98SE. Much, much hardware got obsoleted with the release of Vista because it didn’t have near enough ‘horsepower’ to run that OS. The same was also true when XP came along. But that ‘obsolete’ hardware can still run Linux.

My reasons for leaving Windows were several. Mostly, I got tired of the security software rat race. It just became such an onerous burden to try to keep up with all that stuff. My experiences with Linux OS’s have been nothing short of fantastic! It really changed my life as much as learning Windows did when I first got into computers in ’96.

Windows needs a *lot* of tinkering- with security software, patches, drivers, etc. Linux can need a lot of tinkering too, it’s just mostly in different areas. Most folks will stay with Windows, because it’s familiar and they know their way around it. It’s harder to try new things and learn new ways. Took me a while to get around to switching- but once I did, I was waaaaay happier (“Why did I wait so long?”)

Ubuntu and Linux Mint have both worked great for me. Either is a good starting point for the newcomer or experienced Windows user. Once a person has made a definite decision to make the change, they will find lots of help if they look for it. I found a wealth of friendly Linux help online. Often problems are surprisingly easy to solve. I doubt it is impossible to make a particular wireless card work under Linux. Usually there is a way.