Hi,

I am a complete newbie and am trying to install ubuntu as a dual boot with vista on a dell 9200c with 2gbs of ram. after some difficulty I managed to start the install yet I only get two options on the partition page.

1. Guided - use entire disk
2. Manual

I do not get the option to resize existing partition, which should to be available according to the documentation.

I have read other posts that suggested defrags and checkdisks, which I have completed but without success. How do I use an existing partition or create/ resize one to use ubuntu?

Alternatively, how much will performance be effected if I install on vmware instead?

Thanks in anticipation

I am assuming that Vista is already installed, right? If so, use Vista's partitioning tool to shrink your Vista partition. You can then create an NTFS partition (to later be shared by Ubuntu and Vista for data storage) plus enough free, unpartitioned space in which to install Ubuntu; or you could just leave your Vista partition plus unpartitioned, free space. Based on the amount of RAM you have, I would suggest allowing at least 10GB of free space for your Ubuntu installation; don't shrink Vista's partition down below about 40GB. When you have completed shrinking down Vista's partition and leaving free space for Ubuntu, reboot from your Ubuntu install CD and install Ubuntu on the free disk space you had created.

I think this is the easiest way to dual boot with Vista. The reason you are using the Vista partitioning tool instead of Ubuntu's is that Vista's primary boot partition is a special type of NTFS format that will be left in a unbootable state if you resize it with Ubuntu's partitioning manager during your Ubuntu installation. If you have a Vista installation disc, the Vista partition could be repaired if that should happen; but if you don't have a Vista installation disc you may not be able to get Vista to boot again. Using Vista's partitioning tool should avoid this problem.

I haven't used VMWare, but others may be able to post back on that.

You obviously have a new box: Vista & 2 GB RAM. The major resource bottleneck w/ VMware (presumably the $0 VMserver) is RAM -- there must be enough for 2 OS's, the host (Vista) & the guest(s) (Ubuntu). If you were running anything but Vista, I would say "Go for it, 2GB is plenty", but I have heard that realistically Vista needs 2GB for itself.

Given the added convenience of not having to reboot to switch OS's, as well as the possibility of having several VM's available, I suggest trying the VMware option 1st; if it doesn't perform well enough for you, then fall back to dual-boot.


I don't do Vista, I don't even do XP, but FWIW, everything klytu says matches what I have heard & trust.

Thanks for the help folks!

take care