Once again I praise the Master Gurus!!! I just found this, there were not alerts as I found it in email. I'm off my schedule. Usually pick up email once a day on dial up. So I did not see the primary designation on any of the linux prog yet. I made the partitions originally on windows with easus. So what are 'flags' for and where do you see that 'primary' designation in linux please. This last hurdle to get the boot grub working is all I need to do. All partitions say 'no root files' when I try to install...I only tried on sys [I think that is 1] and sda3 Mint, Didn't try sda2 Windows 7. Should I try windows? Does active mean mounted. I'm learning but I'm a punchy noobe. Sys is at the beginning and has 9MB free. How do I 'point' to Mint part sda3? Mint install does ask but so far we get the 'no root file' message. Just tried again a couple of hours ago. I did as you said. Tried again. Now in the beginning I was told to select the 'something else' option as the install asked for direction so that the whole drive was not overwritten and I lost windows which I need for that astrology program which is critical. I need windows till I get that program working in Wine or Virtual box and then windows is probably out of here. So I need a duel boot. Is the 'something else' option correct? Doing things that way gives me the 'no root files' message. I do have to check to see if the partitions are mounted or not. Do I understand, they should NOT be mounted when installing Mint. I'm re-reading what you reiterated several times thanks nothing mounted during install, got it. I'm off to try again!