Installing Ubuntu alongside XP

[JBD88]

Sony Desktop from 2004
Pre-installed C drive 15Gb which has the O/S, program files, and little else. I just added SP3 and it barely fit.

D drive is 165 Gb with about 75 Gb free. I am defraging it as we speak.

My question is, when I boot up the Ubuntu CD and it asks me about partitioning, will it give me the option to make the C drive bigger without disrupting the XP install? I want to have dual boot capabilities. Was just sort of hoping it would give me the chance to make C bigger as it's basically full. Could not even defrag it because it was less than 15% free space. I've deleted all I can.

My plan would be to put Ubuntu on the the D drive, or at least on a new drive that I steal space from D to make. I assume that's how it works. 20 Gb enough for my Linux?

Appreciate any comments. I've very new to this.

Joe

[Pumalite]

Better 'shrink' XP ahead of time with Gparted Live CD (less chance of errors):
http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...kage_id=271779
Burn the iso to disk and boot from it.
Right click on XP and choose 'resize' from the menu.

[JBD88]

what does the shrink do?

[Pumalite]

Gives you fre unallocated space for Ubuntu. You can continue and on that space create 3 'New' partitions:
10 GB for '/'
The rest minus the amount of your RAM for /home
The amount of your RAM for /swap. Remove Gparted . Plug in your Ubuntu Live CD, install, go 'Manual' at the partitioner and use the already prepared partitions.

[JBD88]

This seems to be working. I had to shrink down the big D drive, then move it to the right. And then I think it will let me move the C to the right with the space created moving D. I also left about 50 Gb on the end for Linux.

I'll create the 3 drives you mention. Which type? I know it's not NTFS, right?

Thanks for the help. I would have done this a while ago had I just asked.

Joe

[Pumalite]

You can format it ntfs, but making the partitions I told you about would be better. Having a separate /home allows you to keep your data and settings in case of a reinstall.

[JBD88]

Ok, so far so good. I shrunk and moved my D drive. but the C Drive is apparently not moveable, so so much for making it bigger. At some point, I probably won't be able to add updates to XP, but maybe I'll be a full time Linux user by then.

For the 3 mounts you suggested, which filesystem do I choose? ext2, ext3 or the others? I noticed one type is called Linux-swap. Is that what I use for the /swap?

Almost there. Thank you.