Help on Partitioning HardDrive
 

Hi,

I'm new to Linux (obviously), and am trying to set up a dual boot using a Dell Inspiron 6000 notebook with i386 and 40gb HD, and have latest version of kubuntu linux on CD.

Anyways, the point is I have no idea how to partition the drive so as to keep Windows XP and run linux. When the partition option comes up, the two main parts are the NFTS and fat32. NFTS being about 36.7gb and fat32 3.2gb. I've heard there are programs capable of further partitioning drives but I have no idea how to go about it. Any help is greatly appreciated.

~Thanks

You will need to repartition the ntfs partition so you can make room for linux, or you could buy a seperate hard drive for linux, if you have the money.

I have used partition magic in the past to repartition windows. It works pretty good and is pretty self explanatory.

If you don't have the money to buy partition magic, you could download gparted, a live distro that has the Gnome Partition Editor application on it. I have never used this, but found it with a google search.

Edit: I don't think I fully answered your question, yet just started.

Depending on what you want to do with this version of linux (learning, another os that you will store files on, etc) will determine how much space you want to create for linux. I would recommend 5-10 gigs at least. This will give you enough room to install the os, and have some room for files. Once you get space cleaned up, you can either have the installer automatically setup your partition sizes within linux, or you can specify them yourself. A partitioning guide for linux can be found here.
I think that should get you started down the right path.

Great thanks,

Actually I'm first year in University and will need linux soon for some C++, java, etc. programming courses. But for now I still want Windows to be my main OS, and slowly get used to the functionality of linux.

And thanks for the link, I'll look into it.~