Install Elementary OS
Discover how to safely install Linux on your PC.
Iif you’ve liked what you’ve seen and decided to install Elementary OS, it’s time to take the plunge – or, if you’re not quite ready, check out the box (below) on installing Elementary in a virtual machine, which has the added benefit of giving you a dry run through the install process without having to worry about damaging your system.
Now consider where and how you’re installing Elementary OS. In most cases, you’ll be installing it alongside Windows. This can be done one of two ways: either install Elementary on its own separate hard drive, or partition your existing system drive to make space for Elementary alongside Windows.
If you choose the latter option, you need to shrink your Windows drive to free up a minimum of 64GB of space for Linux. Make sure you leave Windows some free space, too – we recommend your current drive has a minimum of 100GB of free space before attempting to partition it. One prerequisite of a dual-boot setup is that you disable hibernation in Windows, which has the bonus of freeing up gigabytes of drive space (the equivalent of however much RAM is in your PC). To do this, right-click the Start button and choose Terminal (Admin). Type the following command and hit Enter:
$ powercfg -h off
After you’ve cleared out enough space, right-click the Start button and choose Disk Management. Rightclick your Windows drive and choose Shrink Volume to attempt to shrink it by 64GB or more. If this isn’t possible due to what Windows terms “unmovable” files, use a free third-party tool such as Paragon Partition Manager Community Edition (www.paragonsoftware.com/free/pm-express) to free up the space.
If your drive isn’t big enough to accommodate Linux as well as Windows, and there isn’t space to fit a second drive, you may need to consider upgrading to a larger one – if you go down this route, use Hasleo Backup Suite’s Clone > Disk Clone option to migrate your existing Windows installation to the new, larger drive before proceeding.
Start the install process
You’re now ready to install Elementary. With your USB drive plugged in, restart your PC. The start of the process is identical to giving Elementary a test drive, so repeat the process of booting from your USB drive from the previous page.
You’ll now find yourself back at the Try Or Install screen. At this point, you have two broad choices: Erase Disk And Install, or Custom Install (Advanced). The first option is the one to choose if you’re either wiping Windows completely from your system or installing Elementary to its own drive. This latter option is our preferred method – not only do you get to preserve your Windows installation, but by keeping Elementary on a separate drive, you don’t have to get involved with any partitioning.
But this isn’t always practical – for example, you want Elementary alongside Windows on a laptop with
only one physical hard disk, which is where the advanced option comes in. This lets you configure the free space to welcome Elementary on to your PC.
Installation proper
The process diverges depending on which install option you choose. If you select Erase Disk And Install, you’re shown a list of all detected drives. Whichever drive you select is wiped clean and Elementary is installed on it, so choose with care. If installing Elementary to its own drive, use the drive size to identify the correct one to erase before clicking Next.
If you’re choosing the Custom Install (Advanced) option, follow the step-by-step guide (above) to see how to carve out the freed-up space for Elementary.
Once your drive has been selected or partitioned, you may be prompted to enable drive encryption for security purposes – either select Choose Password to do so (but make sure the password is both strong and memorable – store it somewhere safe, such as your password manager) or choose Don’t Encrypt if you don’t need it.
Next, you’re prompted to install proprietary drivers – we recommend ticking the box before clicking Erase And Install to begin the installation proper. Wait for
drives to be erased, files copied and extracted, and the installation to proceed.
Post-install steps
You’re next prompted to unplug your flash drive (this is done automatically if you’re installing in a virtual machine) and press Enter to reboot. Do so and if you’re lucky, you’re shown the GRUB boot menu for the first time, where you’re given a choice between booting Elementary or Windows every time you start your PC.
If this doesn’t appear and you find yourself back in Windows, restart your PC and press the key prompted (typically Del or F2) to enter your system BIOS/UEFI. Locate the Boot section, where you should see that your Windows boot manager is currently the default boot device – change this to the Elementary OS entry, save your changes and exit. You should now boot to GRUB – leave Elementary selected to complete setup.
This can take some time in a VM (wait if you find yourself halted at a terminal login prompt, for example). Eventually, the wizard reappears – skip through the language settings, then set up your user account (full name, username, password, and computer name for identifying on the network), then click Finish Setup. Congratulations you’ve fully installed Elementary OS.