You don't really need to have an extra partition to swap between Windows and Linux. You'll see the Windows disk space under Linux, so just linking it up will do.

The very minimum you need is just a single partition for all the Linux stuff. But apart from the root partition (mounted as /) you can also go for:

• swap - You know this one already and I don't feel competent to advise on the size.




• /home - This one keeps user personal data and can be encrypted. It's a good idea to keep this one as a separate partition. It's like Users in Windows. You can link together directories like Documents or Pictures from both Windows and Linux. This way, as long as you store your stuff in the places where Linux points at the common directories, you'll see them in Windows. I'm not sure if Linux could mount an NTFS partition as /home, which could be another option. This might involve linking it on the other side with corresponding Windows directories under Windows, which I guess should be possible, but I don't know Windows well enough.




• Other advanced fragmentation like separating the /usr. But if you're a beginner, you're not going to need it soon.