i currently have Windows XP in my comp and i want to install Ubuntu 8.04.
My HD has 2 partitions (C and D)
Windows XP is installed into C.
At the installation part of Ubuntu, what option should i select so that Linux is installed into D?

thank you

Use the manual partitioning option from the installer,you can then install ubuntu where you wish.
Make sure you are using the correct partition before writing the changes to the harddrive.
Hope this helps.....
Regards
The trooper

Before you do anything, be sure you back up anything you don't want to lose. Murphy predicts that something will go wrong and the disk will be trashed if you don't. Not a very probable outcome, but it's better to be safe.

Jim.

Good call jim!

Your D partition is most likely formatted in ntfs. I do not think linux will install on a ntfs formatted partition.

It will need to be reformatted to either ext3 or reiser fs to work. Your xp will no longer be able to access or see the linux partition. But in linux you will be able to access, read, and write to the windows partition using fuse and ntfs-3g open source software.

You will need another small prtition called linux-swap to work. It will need to be about the same size as the amount of memory you have. So if you have 512 of ram you will also need 512 swap parition.

In addition to doing the backup as suggested, it would be a good idea to run Disk Defragmenter if you have been using xp for any length of time. Also, Linux doesn't have the same naming convention windows uses (C,E,etc)but rather uses hda or sda (which would be first hard drive) and partitions are hda1 or sda1 (first partition on first hard drive) and you should be familiar with this before doing an install or you are likely to install to the wrong partition.

It might be best to delete D:\ from XP, and leave the space unallocated. Then choose "use free space" option when you get to that stage in the Ubuntu installation.

The ubuntu installer offers the option to shrink ntfs partitions to free up some space for itself. It seems to me that you can simply pop in your cd and go. Then agian, tampering with partitions is a bit of a tricky business and resizing can be quite time-consuming so the most efficient approach, I guess, would be simply deleting D before you install.

Some reading on partitioning.

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/partitioning

This is the easiest thing to do. It's what I did and it worked beautifully. If you use fat partitioning, it will show up in Windows and that's probably not something you'd want. To delete D: right click on My Computer, choose "Manage" and go to "Disk Management". Right click on D: and choose the option to delete the volume.

There are problems with shrinking an os. It can cause problems to the programs saved on that partition. At times that os will not even reboot.