http://picpaste.com/pics/da7e6e12702...1371908639.png

The above link is a screen shot of my hard-drive partitions (using GParted) . Right now i have only linux in my hard drive. Now i want to install windows in a partition with a partition size of 230 GB, without losing linux.

So how to perform this ??

Hi cyberPheonix. I would suggest to click on the thread tools menu and find a way to rename the title of your post. Just remove the part that says URGENT!! You might see the majority of participants in this forums are volunteers and what would be urgent to you might not be urgent for a volunteer out there. some of them might even find it rude.

Now about your question for what I understand when you install windows it tent to take over the entire hard drive so that is why it is recommended to install windows first then reduce its partition and install Linux in the unalocated free espace.

So if you want to do that go head back up all the important files in your computer, install windows and let it whipe out the entire disk, and then proceed with the partitioning.

Good luck to you.

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You have only one partition in which linux is installed already.
If you will install windows in it, it will remove the linux.

If you would have atleast one more partition with sufficient space, you could install windowd in it.

As far as I know you can install windows without removing Linux using VirtualBox.

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The virtual box solution is a good idea. Installing Windows over Linux is not. Follow post #2 if you don't want to use the VirtualBox solution.
jdk

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You should be able to select sda1 and resize it down. Did you try that? If so what happened?

I would leave it unallocated and let windows create the partition.

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Just install windows to free space. If you don't have enough free space then boot to live cd and resize if possible. it is OK also to use Windows to resize it's partition.

Windows will not destroy linux, it will however install it's own loader. You will then have to correct that or re-install grub.
-- A later post here reminds me that yes, some recovery media will destroy linux.

People have been loading windows on after linux for decades. Not the preferred way but thousands of web pages on it.

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This is only true for most recovery CD/DVDs that make an automated installation, wiping out the whole disk in that process. Retail/SystemBuilder versions of Windows don't do that. While it is slightly more difficult (due to the bootloader problem) to install Windows after Linux, it is not really a problem and newer Windows versions will run just fine in that configuration.

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If I were you AND did have a retail copy of windows I would remove the swap partition and extended partition with Gparted or Partedmagic (whatever partition tool you use), then shrink your Linux partition down making room for both windows and a new swap. Be sure to create all as primary partitions as windows will only run on primary and swap is said to work best on one also.

When you do this you will have to reinstall your boot-loader, you didn't say what Linux you have installed so I can't say much there. Usually you will boot into the cd you installed it from and reinstall the loader.
Then you will need to modify your fstab to the new swap location. If you hadn't created an extended partition you wouldn't need that step(I honestly looking at your partition setup can't understand why you made one with only 2 active partitions on the disk).

I hope this helps.

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Many distributions do that by default when you let the installer partition the disk automatically.

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