Maybe it's a stupid question but is it possible to partition a brand new ssd 500Gb before installing any OS on it? I would like to install Win 7 64bit home premium and linux ubuntu or mint as the second OS. I also would like to have a data partition where my data would not been affected by any OS format operation.
And will the linux will make me a boot menu?
Thanks to help me out on that.
When you say "is it possible to partition a brand new ssd 500Gb before installing any OS", do you mean partition using the Ubuntu installer, or more general? In fact the answer is yes in both cases. During install: see this question, if you'd like to partition prior to running the installer, take a look at a live CD/USB stick like SystemRescueCD.
Regarding the data partition: since Windows can't (by default) read Linux Ext4 partitions, it's better to use NTFS (or FAT32) for it. Both Linux and Windows can read and write there.
If you install Windows first and Linux second, the installer will create a boot menu for you.
