Efficient partitioning for installing ubuntu?

Question

i am installing ubuntu first time alongside windows 8. So my comp is new. I have 5 partitions from manufacturer: EFI, 2 recovery partitions and C and D as NFTS. Windows is on C, D is empty.I am going to use windows very few. So i would like to allocate all the memory possible to ubuntu. I read everywhere that it is needed to shrink C to install ubuntu. So i will have freespace from C. But what about D? If it is empty and i would like also allocate it to Linux. How can i be sure to do it? What about other partitions? E.g. this EFI partition, do i need or maybe i can delete this partition to allocate to ubuntu as well? Would be great to have your advices! Thank you!

Answer 1

I just dual booted Windows 8 and Ubuntu 14.04. I created recovery DVDs and then simply deleted the D drive, shrank C, and proceeded to use the empty space to create a regular partition (and a swap space) for Ubuntu. I did not mess with the EFI or the other partitions, so I can't tell you exactly what will happen with those, but since those come before the C drive, you might want to leave them alone. (I ran into problems when Windows was occupying partitions that were not right next to each other--not sure if Ubuntu will have the same issues.)