Ubuntu & HDD Partitioning

tombiz · 07-12-2006, 05:13 PM

I am curently running Win XP Pro. I have one HDD that is partitioned with two partitions.
The second partition has my software installed (except Windows XP Pro)such as Firefox, Dreamweaver, etc.
I want to know if I can split the second partition in half and install Ubuntu on that partition.
Is this a good way to install Ubuntu in order to achieve dual-boot?

Thanks.

pljvaldez · 07-12-2006, 05:23 PM

If you have the space, there's no reason not to do that. I would defragment that drive before resizing it. A full Ubuntu intstall with all the bells and whistles will probably need around 5 GB.

tombiz · 07-12-2006, 05:27 PM

What software can I use to resize the current partition and make it two partitions from the second partition?

pljvaldez · 07-12-2006, 05:29 PM

I use the GParted Live CD. It's a nice graphical Partition Magic clone.

tombiz · 07-12-2006, 05:32 PM

Can I run that from within Windows?

pljvaldez · 07-12-2006, 05:38 PM

No. It's a live CD that you pop in your CD drive and reboot. Then you'll be taken into a mini Linux environment to do the partitioning (it's all graphical). When you're done, just select system shutdown (or something like that). When it's done shutting down, you can reboot into Windows to make sure you didn't hose anything up...

Micro420 · 07-12-2006, 08:27 PM

Yes, I can confirm that Ubuntu 6.06 has the GParted utility built into the Live/install CD. It's easy to use and I have installed Ubuntu on 3 systems with only one hard. It's amazing how it can repartition, resize, and keep your Windows (NTFS) partition in tact. So far, everything is all functional!