Please help. (total newb)

[Esteria]

I had a problem with windos vista locking up so my friend installed Ubuntu 9.04 on my computer. Because windows was in safe mode he had to select full instill without a partition to get it to work. The only OS on my machine now is Ubuntu. I have been trying to instal vista back on my computer for just my games but iw will not install off the dell cd. If I buy a windows XP program and wish to install it with a half and half hard drive partition.... how do I do this? I do not want to go buy a copy of xp to not have it instal. Please help. I like what I have been able to get running with ubuntu and wish it to be my main OS but i need windows xp for gaming.

[MelDJ]

I had a problem with windos vista locking up so my friend installed Ubuntu 9.04 on my computer. Because windows was in safe mode he had to select full instill without a partition to get it to work. The only OS on my machine now is Ubuntu. I have been trying to instal vista back on my computer for just my games but iw will not install off the dell cd. If I buy a windows XP program and wish to install it with a half and half hard drive partition.... how do I do this? I do not want to go buy a copy of xp to not have it instal. Please help. I like what I have been able to get running with ubuntu and wish it to be my main OS but i need windows xp for gaming.

did you set your BIOS to boot from cd when you tried installing vista?

[Esteria]

no. I don't even know how to do that.

[MelDJ]

when the dell boot screen comes up when you on your computer, press F12. then select to boot from your cd drive. i am assuming that my dell and yours uses the same BIOS though

[Esteria]

if this works, will it be able to install windows and set a partition for it or do i need to create a partition for it first? If i need to create a partition first..... how? I can't try this untill i get home from work.

[MelDJ]

i don't know about vista but installing XP will require you to format your whole disk into fat32 or ntfs. so if ubuntu is on the same drive, i believe it will be formatted. try googling about it though

[MelDJ]

this might be helpful: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

[Esteria]

ok. i will mess with it when I get home. Thank you for the info and I am sure I will have more questions.

[MelDJ]

be sure to come back here and ask though

[Esteria]

oh i will. Google has not been my friend so far. I can find all kinds of info on installing ubuntu and dual boot when windows is installed but not the other way around. especially when windows was deleted when ubuntu was installed. Thanks for your help...so far. haha