It is assumed that Windows 7 is installed on /dev/sda, the first hard drive recognized by the system, and Pear Linux 5 will be installed on /dev/sdb, the second hard drive. And rather than use Pear Linux’s automated installation mode, all its partitions will be created manually. So aside from showing how to dual-boot Pear Linux 5 and Windows 7 on a computer with 2 hard drives, this article serves the secondary purpose of showing how to create partitions manually for installing Pear Linux 5 on any computer.
By default, the Pear Linux is installed on two partitions – the root partition and Swap. For this tutorial, it will be installed on four – the boot partition, root partition, home partition, and Swap. The boot partition is where all boot-related file and folders are located. Root holds all installed programs, while home is where you store all your data. Swap is disk space that the computer may use as virtual memory. Creating a separate partition for home makes it relatively easy to upgrade the system without messing with your data.