The problem with tutorials are everybody has a different starting point.
Some people have multiple drives or partitions already. Some people have
only one drive and no partitions. This makes a big difference in how drives
are designated by Linux and where you put things. One person may want to
put it on sda and another on sdb or sda2 on one machine may be different
from sda2 on another. Also it depends on which version of Windows you are
using because W7 is spread across two partitions and also some
manufacturers have a restore partition. So the chances of anybody having a
similar setup diminish rapidly. If you blindly follow them without
understanding then you can royally mess things up.

The second problem with online tutorials is that some are very dated, using
versions that are no longer available. Canonical has changed Ubiquity
(installer) much over the years and the wording may change and options that
were once there have disappeared. For example a custom installation was
once referred to as Manual or custom, but is now called Something else.

Use any tutorial or guide with caution. That being said, this is a very
routine procedure.

Here is a great guide on how to install Kubuntu 12.04 NOT sharing with
Windows.

www.howtoforge.com/...erfect-desktop-kubuntu-12.04

This is a tutorial on dual booting Windows 7 and Mint

www.howtoforge.com/dualbooting-windows-7-and-linux-mint-12

You will notice when comparing the two that the installers differ. You will
want to do a Manual installation. It is probably better to do the
partitioning ahead of time, but that is my personal preference. You should
plan what you want the final partition table to look like.

Rules of thumb: Keep Windows first with other partitions going after it.
Shrink your Windows user partition to make room for other partitions. Linux
will need at least two partitions, one for the OS and a small SWAP
partition. (If you are up to it then go for three with the extra being for
home).

This is where it gets complicated. Let's assume that your computer has
three partitions already (C: for the OS, D: for System and a Restore
partition from the OEM) then you can make only one more primary partition
(maximum of 4). The way around it is to make an Extended Partition with
your Linux partitions created inside of it. This makes for extra work and
room for error. That is why you need to scout out your own system first and
plan accordingly, rather than following a tutorial made for a different
system.

I don't want to make this sound scary. It isn't. There just is no way to
give a tutorial for every possibility. It is better to learn a bit and work
generally. The easiest route is to add a second drive (they can be cheap)
and use the whole drive. It won't touch Windows on the other drive (so long
as you know them apart). and it will set-up its own partitioning scheme on
the second drive.

An excellent and accurate summary of why no "one size fits all"
instructions are possible. I would only add that most of this applies
equally to Windows. The only reason it is seen as "easy" is that it comes
pre-installed!

Installing Ubuntu is not difficult. The steps are easy to understand and
clearly explained as you go. Once the novice understand that it needs a
minimum of two partitions, root (big, 20+ GB) and swap (tiny, ~2 GB) the
rest is easy.

With no licensing issues to worry about (every copy from the Ubuntu website
is "genuine Ubuntu") re-installing is hassle free if you don't like the
results the first time.

This was a lot of information for me and I had to weigh the options.

(1) In my mind, using an external hard drive for my laptop defeats
convenience of portability. For that reason, I will rule out that
option.

(2) I am glad you pointed out the problem with tutorials when Windows 7
is involved.

(3) I choose not to remove Windows 7
(www.howtoforge.com/...erfect-desktop-kubuntu-12.04 guides us
through that process. The picture that reads "Installation Type", I
clicked on manual instead, then next, but did not understand what I
saw.) There are certain programs I need to access from Windows and duel
boot gives me that flexibility.

(4) You wrote: "W7 is spread across two partitions and also some
manufacturers have a restore partition." I clicked on Computer and found
the following: Local Disc (C:) and Recovery (D:). Does that mean I only
have two partitions or does it mean a third one is hidden in the
background.

My laptop is a HP Pavilion dv6 laptop with Windows 7. The Bios allows
me to boot first from a CD or DVD (but no provisions from a thumb
drive.)

(5) My only experience installing any type of Linux was Ubuntu 10.04.1
on my Dell 3000 desktop using Windows XP. Since the Bios did not allow
me to control the booting sequence, I had to let the installation disc
begin the process from Windows. Ultimately, what I thought was a duel
boot, ended up as a Ubuntu file created in Windows (Barry pointed it out
to me on 6/23). In this arrangement, booting up Ubuntu only takes me 30
seconds, which is very fast.

If duel boot is not an option, I can live with installation described in
(5).

I have a desktop computer. My W7 drive has two partitions, System (C:), OS
(D:) where System is W7 and OS is HP's recovery partition. I used to have
it partitioned with the addition of several more partitions. In Linux the
drive was sda with sda1 being C: and sda2 being D: then I had and sda3
which was formatted to FAT 32 for shared data such as music and backups.
and then I had an extended partition for the remainder. Inside that I
created three partitions for Kubuntu, sda4 (20 GBs) for / (root), sda5
(4GBs) for SWAP and sda6 (200 GBs) for /home.

I said "used to have" because the drive started to fail and I added a
second HD (sdb) where I now have three partitions for Kubuntu 12.04 plus
nine other partitions for other distros (12 partitions in all) plus the two
on the original drive. I have had more in the past.

Partitioning need not be painful once you understand the basics.

1. Shrink the partition (in your case it will be C:) keeping it the size
that works for you. Keep the freed space to the right. That will keep C: in
place. Windows does not like you to mess with it.

2. Create one or more partitions in the freed or unallocated space using
the file system of your choice. For Linux I prefer three partitions --- a
separate root and home partition plus swap. In your case you can get by
with two (no home) and that way you do not need to use an extended
partition. What you would lose is a separate home which is very handy, but
not necessary. Alternatively you could create an extended partition and
partition that to create three or more partitions. It is just an extra
step, but going with two partitions requires less planning and may save
space. No separate home is just more work if you need to re-install.

Possible configurations for you could be

sda1 (C:), sda2 (D:) and sda3 (/) plus sda4 (swap) Your sda3 would be ext4
file system while sda1 and sda would show as NTFS for C: and probably FAT32
for D:

or

sda1 (C:), sda2 (D:) and sda3 being the extended partition with sda4 (/),
sda5 (/home) plus sda6 (swap). sda4 and sda5 would be ext4.

The size of sda3 and sda4 are dependent on your habits and hardware. If you
do not install many applications or store much data then you can get away
with 8 GBs. Your swap should not exceed your RAM (some say twice your RAM,
but more is not better since disk caching actually is slower than using
RAM). If you do lots of multimedia or plan on installing many applications
then you will need to increase to a higher partition size. Ripping a single
DVD can eat up several GBs in temp files alone. My basic configuration
would be a minimum of 20 GBs for Kubuntu, more if you have bigger HD.

Once you have partitioned then you can begin installing. Use the
partitioning software that you fell most comfortable with. If you lack any
Windows ones then you can use GParted or Parttion Manager that comes with
Kubuntu. I prefer to install from a usb key and use Unetbootin to create
the bootable ISO, but a CD works well. It is just much slower.

Check every decision twice before you commit it whether you are
partitioning or installing. Basically you will format only
one partition when installing. That will be your root partition (two if you
are using a separate home). Make sure that you are not formatting sda1 or
sda2 (your Windows partitions) whatever you do. Everything else is
recoverable, but if you format W7 then you are skewered. BTW, if you have
not burned recovery CDs for W7 then now would be a good time. Murphy's Law
suggests that if anything goes wrong it will and it will happen when you
are least prepared for it. An easy way to tell drives apart if you get
confused by letters is the file format. Windows will show as NTFS and FAT.
Don't touch anything in those formats.

If you just have a standard Win7 installation then the Ubuntu CD will
guide you through the creation of a dual boot and will automatically
re-size the C: drive to create space for Ubuntu - usually splits the
free space in half but you can adjust this if you want to, or just
leave it at that. The automatic process will also create the swap file
at an appropriate size so no need to worry about that either :-)

There are two basic ways of creating a dual-boot - running the Ubuntu
CD at boot time ( i.e. not going into Windows first ) will physically
split the C: partition and give the fastest performance. If you start
Windows first then put the Ubuntu CD in and create the dual-boot that
way ( the WUBI installer ) then this creates a large file in Windows
that is used to install Ubuntu into. The advantage here is that it's
easier to remove later but does have a performance hit.

Having said that, Win7 has much better partition handling and if you
did physically partition then wanted to remove Ubuntu then that's not
too difficult as the Ubuntu partitions can be deleted then the C:
drive expanded to reclaim the free space using Win7's Disk Manager.

Whichever way you go, you can let the automatic setup do its stuff :-)

--

There are differences in the way Ubuntu and Kubuntu handle this in
the installer. Ubuntu's installer has the option to Install Ubuntu
alongside Windows 7 (see:
www.linuxbsdos.com/.../how-to-dual-boot-ubuntu-12-04-and-windows-7\
/
)
Kubuntu has only the Guided and Manual option. I've never done Guided.

Conversation here on how to dual boot Kubuntu:
askubuntu.com/.../how-do-i-partition-my-hard-drive-to-instal\
l-kubuntu
See also http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Kubuntu:Precise

Does Windows 7 Home Premium qualify as a standard Win7 installation?
Maybe I have the wrong picture. What is meant by standard Win7 installation?