How to install other operating systems on a laptop?

[melrokz]

I have a DELL studio 15 laptop which comes preinstalled with Windows Vista home premium and comes with it's own reinstallation cd's. This is fine for Vista, but if I want to install Ubuntu 8.04 as a multiboot setup into another ext3 partition, what must I do? The boot disks (UltimateBootCD) I use to partition my laptop do not recognise my hard disk at all. What may I do?

[cariboo907]

The best way to create room to install another os is to use Vista's disk management software to resize your partition to create enough free space on your hard drive.

Then follow this tutorial here:

http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-ubuntu-8.04-lts-hardy-heron

Jim

[ajgreeny]

Just make sure you defrag a couple of times before using Vista's disk management tool to shrink the Vista partition, then follow the link given above or look at thevarious pages at this site http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/index.php which has a lot more info. I agree it is easiest to make a partition for ubuntu before you install, but when you get to partitioning in the install go to Manual and proceed from there to make a separate /, /home and swap partition.

It will hopefully become clearer when you get to that point, but whatever you do, make sure you don't wipe your Vista partition, and also make sure you have backed up all important data before you do anything, just in case something should go wrong.