Linux Mint 19.1: Install Without Fear of Disk Partitioning

Linux Mint 19.1: How to Install It for the First Time

The tutorial promises the usual steps: shrink the Windows volume to make space, boot from a USB drive, and click next. Then comes the wall. Disk partitioning is the hurdle that stops many people trying to switch to Linux for the first time, and the video knows it: that's why it shows two paths, the automatic one handled by the installer and the manual one, where the user creates a system partition and another for personal data by hand. The catch is that even the author doesn't dare call the second one easy: he labels it "Not So Easy".

What the Tutorial Teaches Before Installing Linux Mint

The approach is sensible, which makes it painful. Before touching the installer, you must free up disk space, meaning entering Windows, shrinking the volume, and leaving room for future partitions. This is the step almost no one explains, turning a calm afternoon into a megabyte allocation sudoku. The video covers it but also highlights an uncomfortable truth: Linux installation still depends on users understanding a concept (where one system ends and another begins) that modern software has hidden for years.

The Three-Disk Solution: Disconnect and Pray

There is a solution that sounds like a joke but is real: having three physical disks, one for Linux, one for Windows, and a third just for work and personal files. When installing, you physically disconnect the other two and click next without thinking. It's the home version of isolating the problem instead of solving it, and it works. According to reports, using an old machine without UEFI also works, where Linux Mint and Windows 10 coexisted peacefully until a semi-annual update messed things up, forcing data recovery and reinstallation. The repeated conclusion: if you want to keep tinkering, a dedicated Linux disk avoids these hassles.

Is Linux Mint an Unnecessary Distro in 2019?

Here the tone rises. Part of the analysis argues that Mint was born to facilitate codecs like MP3 and is now redundant, parasitizing Ubuntu—who provides money and resources—and sending users to the parent company's forums when something fails. The response trinc quickly: Mint isn't among the top three most used distros by chance; it works, is stable, and brings Cinnamon, a desktop environment that is popular and not offered by default in Ubuntu. When someone cites Distrowatch rankings as proof, they are reminded that this only measures website clicks, not installed systems; real data exists in the industrial sector, with Red Hat and Ubuntu strong in the cloud, and in Steam statistics, which represent a minimal part of the desktop market. Veterans say community disdain slides off them: they've endured it for fifteen years.

Cinnamon, Timeshift, and the Error That Loops the System

The most useful part deals with real problems. A user reports that Mint froze and got stuck in a loop asking for the password. He suspects he configured too many Timeshift backups and filled the disk. You can restore a backup from the Live CD, and it's fast. The diagnosis points to something segarro: putting backups in the root directory instead of home, with a useless partition at the start and no clear swap. The closing recommendation: reinstall cleanly with three primary partitions—4 GB for swap, 25 GB for the system, and the rest for data—and stop accumulating snapshots without checking where they go. The first installation is done with antiestéticar; the second, in a hurry.

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And that's how it stands. The tutorial teaches how to install Linux Mint 19.1, yes, but the problem nobody solves is the same old one: as long as partitioning remains an exam, the door to the free desktop will have the sign "Not So Easy" hanging on the handle.