Hi, i don’t know how to keep a partion untouched. I have windows 10 installed on my acer netbook. There are 3 partitions: first partition (500MB recovery), main partition with windows os installed and the third partition that contains backup files, photos (250GB). I want to install as soon as possible ubuntu MATE x64 on this netbook, and i want erase windows 10 and to keep untouched the third partition (ntfs). How can i choose a partition table when i first install ubuntu MATE? Total capacity of my HDD (is only 1) is 500GB. Thanks!
Hallo
Before you do anything else BACKUP YOUR DATA!
It sounds as if your new to or not very experienced with partitioning storage media. Be warned - if you get it wrong you can loose data. So first of all - backup your precious files.
You might find this resource useful:
Question 1
Do you want to erase the W10 partition?
Question 2
Do you want to erase the recovery partition?
Question 3
Do you have an external drive available to backup your existing files onto?
Question 4
Are ALL your files (photos, documents, etc.) in formats that the software you intend to use on Ubuntu-Mate can open and work with?
Your answers to these questions will help other members of the forum to give you more specific advice.
I’ve done the transition on three machines, just take your time and plan things out. Make sure you understand what you’re doing before you begin. The reward is Ubuntu-Mate. 
Q1: Yes!
Q2: Yes!
Q3: Yes! I have an 64GB USB 3.0 flash drive
Q4: there are word, excel documents that can be opened and edited with LibreOffice and photos that any image viewer (Shotwell) can do the job. My family movies can be viewed with vlc.
Hallo
Sadly
I cannot recommend a way to do what you asked about in the title of your post. I’ve had the ubuntu-installer (as delivered with Ubuntu-Mate) fail to accept the partitions on a new drive that I partitioned with Gparted prior to trying to install the OS. So trying to install Ubuntu-Mate alongside your 250GB personal files partition may give you a similar experience (it won’t work the way you thought it should/would). 
Secondly
You cannot backup a 250GB partition onto a 64GB external drive.
Thirdly
I personally would make two backups of my files onto two separate storage media (e.g. 2x external HDDs).
Then I would install Ubuntu-Mate onto the whole disk.
Then I would transfer the personal files into the appropriate folders of “/home” e.g. /home/Pictures.
Tipp
It is unwise to store backups on a FAT file system (most purchased USB-sticks are formatted FAT16 or FAT32). 
WARNING !
Do not rush into this. Be sure you know what you’re doing before you begin. If in doubt, wait to gain more knowledge or gather more advice. 
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If you install from a Live USB/CD and pick the option at the bottom of the install page “Something Else” you should be able to put your whole install in the partition that Windows is on now- first erasing and formatting as ext3 or ext4.
That should leave the other partition untouched, and if it’s NTFS linux will have no problems with it.
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