Dual boot install with XP

[bernief9]

I am a long time Windows user. I am very impressed with Kubuntu 6.06.1 LTS after running off the CD. I do not fully understand the proper install procedure to dual boot with my XP. Is there a step by step tutorial that would guide me through? When I get to the partitioning section I get confused. I want to be sure I don't wipe any of my data. My one 120GB HD is already partitioned into C:, D: and E: with XP on C:. C: has over 10GB free, D: has almost 21GB and E: has has 16GB

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[enchesss]

Re: Dual boot install with XP

Just finished dual boot install and it works perfectly.
This may not work on older systems but just install Kubuntu by CDrom. It will give you the option to choose or delete your empty partitions. I recommend that you delete all other partitions and put Kubuntu on remaining empty space becuase it will automatically do swap space. It would not automatically do this if I chose a middle partition for some reason.
The grub installation will show you if it has detected another operating system on teh windows partition and this means that it will be able to give you the option to boot this from teh HD.

CAUTION: I am no expert so check my advise with someone else please. I had to reinstall XP after installing Kubuntu on my old system becuase it corrupted teh HAL file and when i repaired windows it will not give u the option to boot kubuntu. This led to hours of reinstalling operating systems and trying to fix silly (in hinsight) problems. I got a new system and it worked perfectly.

[DW-Scotland]

Re: Dual boot install with XP

This is straightforward

Tidy up all your XP stuff. Delete temporary files and unwanted stuff.
Defrag the hard drive and save any important stuff to another place, DVD etc.

Then restart with your 6.06 in the drive.

Hit Install and adjust language etc. Then you are at the Partitioning section.

I suggest using the bottom manual option. This produces a graphical display of your hard disc. You will see a protected windows or ntfs section/s and the rest of the suggested partitioning for the Linux system. Adjust the sizes if you want and hit continue........
Good book to get is Ubuntu Hacks by O'Reilly.

[zero_koop]

Re: Dual boot install with XP

I am also new at this and I can tell you what I have done (a couple times now) that has worked great. First of all, if you only have 10Gb free on your C: drive I'll assume that you don't want to resize it and you probably shouldn't even if you want to. So when you enter the graphical partition editor you choose the "manually configure partitions" or whatever it's called. Then, delete the partitions D: and E: (or just one of them if that's all the space you want to reserve for Linux). You should now have around 37Gb of continuous, unallocated, unformated free space on your harddrive. Click the next arrow or whatever the button is that commits your decisions and applies them to the harddrive (Immediatley deleting anything you had on drives D: and E: but not touching anything on drive C. If for whatever reason you wanted to resize partition C: you should do it at this point. I'm no expert, but enlarging drive C: should pose no threat to your data, but if you shrink it that's where you run a risk. At this point you could procede to set up the required partitions for Kubuntu manually. Since I am new at this too, I then decided to click the back arrow 2 or 3 times to the screen to where you originally chose to "manually configure partitions". You should now have a new option on this screen which is to "use largest continuous free space". Choose that option and click next. The installation should automatically create a "swap" partition of about 1Gb and allocate the rest for the actual installation of Linux. Hope that makes sense, good luck!