I have a WIN XP SP3 notebook 32-bit PC well I plan Dual Boot with Linux (same PC). Now I have in my laptop two Partitions [XP]... May make a third partition and install Linux or, is needed to format again whole HDD and make two partitions ? The first is it difficult to get done ? If is done Linux can make use of everything in the PC apart from windows partition ?

If I want RUN LINUX from the CDROM ... any software run(not linux OS) must be installed on memory RAM, how this ?
I must download all LAMP (PHP) or only Linux ? May run all applications of LAMP from CDROM or only Linux ?
Running the webserver may done from CDROM, with Linux[from cdrom] same time ?

Before doing anything, back up your data. Then you'll need to use a tool like qtparted. If possible, try this out first on a test system. That is a system you can afford to trash and not feel badly about it.

Here are some links right from within LQ:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ight=partition

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ight=partition

Good luck.

Your post is difficult to understand, and I am going to go ahead and guess that English is not your first language.

Regardless, from what I understand, you have a laptop with two partitions and both are formatted to be read from Windows (NTFS).

I'm not certain on this next part, perhaps someone can confirm. If you want to create a third partition, you can either delete everything and start from scratch with new partitions, or you can delete one of the two partitions and spit it into two new ones. Or, if you only want two partitions, you can delete one of them and make it a Linux partition (ext).

Linux can read but not write to a Windows partition, and I'm not sure about Windows and Linux partitions. There are tools around this, such as ntfs-config, which allows Linux to write to a NTFS partition. Look here for more info on that:
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/widows-ntf...tu-feisty.html

If you want to run Linux from a CD, it runs on your RAM and no changes you make are permanent (Unless you access the Hard Drive from your CD). This is called a Live CD.

Hopefully that information gets you started.

To get it clear about which linux distro are we talking ?
Second you seem to have one HD with two partitions.
One has windows XP
What is on the other partition ?
If the second partition is empty than you can install linux on this partition.
Most Linux distro has a customize or expert option.
Using this option you decide where to install linux and where to install GRUB
If both partition are in use you can make one of the partition smaller
in this case defrag you're windows partitions first
IT is always good practice to make a backup before installing a OS

"or you can delete one of the two partitions and spit it into two new ones. " or "If both partition are in use you can make one of the partition smaller
in this case defrag you're windows partitions first"

Please note both partitions are xp , distro:newest:unbuntu ,

WHEN you say above is needed to DELETE first the one partition(contents) and after split(make third) or this is optional I may keep may data/software ?
What you mean by saying "defrag" ?

Defrag

Defrag means defragmentation. If you are going to change size of the windows partitions they should be defragmented first.

I'm assuming one partition is a recovery partition as most new computers come without an installation CD nowadays. The other partition (the larger one) has the configured operating system and user data.
For members of this forum, it is extremely bad advice to tell a computer illiterate user to delete partitions.

You should shrink the larger partition with partitioning software to make free space for Linux installation, 15GB is sufficient if you keep all data in Windows, you can use ntfs-3g in Linux to read/write to an NTFS partition. The Linux installer should give you advanced or user defined options as to where to install Linux, in which case you would direct it to install in the free space.
Gparted and Qparted are open source softwares and I recommend them when working with open source file systems for resizing partitions, creating partitions, etc., they have not reached version (1.0) which means they have not been proven stable. In my experience, you are best to use proprietary partitioning software when working on proprietary file system partitions. Bootitng can be downloaded and used without obligation for it's partitioning tools, the price they ask is if you install it for it's boot managing capabilities. It is above version (1.0), and claims to do "non-destructive NTFS Fat partition resize". This is a guarantee that the open source partitioning software designers can't offer. Below is a quote from Qtparted web site.
Do not delete partitions if you don't know what they are.

With less words you mean it does not need to delete anything for making third Linux partition ?

other topic:
If I run Linux from cdrom how install/run a program in/from memory RAM, what drive to use for installation/run ?
Are many dangers running Linux from cdrom or none at all ?

Correct
Windows Vista can resize it's partitions using it's own disk tools. With Windows XP you need third party partitioning software.

This is much safer than installing to hard drive for a newbie in the partitioning arena.

If you install the Live CD distribution to a USB key you can more than likely install software right to the file system on the USB key drive if it still has adequate free space, because the USB key is a hard drive. I have the DVD version of Knoppix 5.3.1 installed on an 8GB Sandisk cruiser USB pen drive I purchased for $40.00 Cnd. following the guide link found here. A live CD on a USB pen drive is much faster than a CD/DVD. Some pendrive Linux distributions also offer a floppy or CD method of booting the USB pen drive if your computer's bios does not support booting from a USB device. There may also be third party booting software that can do the same for those that don't offer this added feature.
More information can be found here regarding installing software using Live CD/DVD. Read the "Common traits" section.

If I run Linux from cd or dvd , installed Linux Apps on ram how can be done (what drive to use) ?? Running it from usb flash drive, Apps will installed on the usb memory and stay there permanently , for reuse ?

from
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/
I may buy usb flash memories with Linux(bootable) eg. 8GB ?
answer and prior Q...

Running Linux from cd or dvd will cause pauses in various operations that would be instant when run from the hard drive. A beginner often won't know whether the last operation failed (need to try something else) or the last operation is slow (need to wait and shouldn't try anything else).

Installing things into a usb flash drive for use when booted from CD is possible, but it may be beyond beginner level. Normal (installed on hard disk) use of Linux is much better documented than the CD/USB mix.

From what I understand in this thread, I think the best plan would be:

1) Download and burn an iso for some Linux distribution/live-CD, such as Mepis, which has decent support for running from CD plus a simple GUI disk partitioning tool and a simple GUI installer.

2) Use the defrag tool inside Windows XP. Not everyone agrees, but many of us have seen that Linux tools for resizing XP partitions work very well if you defrag in XP first and not so well if you don't.

3) Boot the Linux live-CD and use the partitioning tool to reduce the size of the XP partition and create an extended partition and within that extended partition create Linux partitions at least for boot and swap (you can have home etc. inside the boot partition or seperate as you choose).

4) Use the Linux GUI installer. Pay careful attention to the prompts regarding use of the disk. You will have some choice to erase everything and use the whole disk. DON'T. You will have some choice to use existing partitions. Do so. The details of how those choices are presented depends on which distribution you chose.

If I run Linux from cd or dvd , how can be GET installed Linux Apps on ram GET done (what drive to use FOR RAM like we ref c-drive with c:/) ?? Running it from usb flash drive, Apps will installed on the usb memory and stay there permanently , for reuse ? or like cdrom (on ram run) temporary again ? answer and prior thread about buying Linux usb drives ?

Yes, using a USB pen drive will allow you to install applications to the pen drive so you won't have to reinstall it.
This can also be done with some Live CDs, as quoted below from the Wikipedia link I provided earlier. Of course, you would be required to use a CD-RW or DVD-RW "re-writable optical media".

internet files(webpages) saved on cdrom or usb flash drive, like php , htm , html, xml may opened by both Linux and Windows Applications Like dreamweaver or Linux equivalent ?