Gaming Installing Ubuntu Alongside Windows XP

[Rydian]

Go back into windows and defrag, then run the installer and have it resize your NTFS partition to make room for an EXTx one for ubuntu.

 

[.Chris]

Go back into windows and defrag, then run the installer and have it resize your NTFS partition to make room for an EXTx one for ubuntu.

What if I can't boot into Windows?

 

[Shabutie78]

when you resize it, you can just make the linux partition, say, 15-20GB. that's really all you need, because you can point your GTK+ bookmarks (which are your places like Downloads, Documents, Music, Videos) to your windows partition. and so when you click "documents" in ubuntu, it'll take you to your pre-existing documents. instead of using folders for them on your linux partition. it's also better to do this if you have music in your "my music" folder in windows. just have ubuntu point its music bookmark to your windows partion's "My Music" and you'll have all your music in linux just as you do in windows.
otherwise, you'll just have a blank music folder in ubuntu.
and so since you won't be downloading stuff to your ubuntu partition, it'll go straight to your windows partition, you don't need that much space on the ubuntu partition. 15-20GB for updates/software installations should be enough.

What if I can't boot into Windows?

you can't boot into windows?

 

[Rydian]

The installer should resize it safely, I just suggest defragging first just in case.

 

[Shabutie78]

Hey guys what do I do for the thing above?

rydian is kinda telling you to do more than you have to.
i don't know why he's saying to defrag.
all you do is highlite sda2, which should be where your windows XP is installed to since its file system is NTFS.
then click change and shrink the partition to -20GB whatever it was before.
once that's done shrinking, you'll be left with 20GB of unallocated space.
click the unallocated space and click "add."
make the partition 18GB and format it as an ext4 filesystem.
click "mount point" and change it to "/". this means it will mount that partition as the root folder, meaning that's the partition your linux will install to.
now with the other 2GB of unallocated space, click add again and this time make it linux swap space.

now you're ready to proceed with the installation.

edit:
shrink your sda2 partition to 93747 MB to make it 20GB less than it is now.

 

[.Chris]

Hey guys what do I do for the thing above?

rydian is kinda telling you to do more than you have to.
i don't know why he's saying to defrag.
all you do is highlite sda2, which should be where your windows XP is installed to since its file system is NTFS.
then click change and shrink the partition to -20GB whatever it was before.
once that's done shrinking, you'll be left with 20GB of unallocated space.
click the unallocated space and click "add."
make the partition 18GB and format it as an ext4 filesystem.
click "mount point" and change it to "/". this means it will mount that partition as the root folder, meaning that's the partition your linux will install to.
now with the other 2GB of unallocated space, click add again and this time make it linux swap space.

now you're ready to proceed with the installation.

edit:
shrink your sda2 partition to 93747 MB to make it 20GB less than it is now.

After I highlight and click "Change" for the SD2, I get this:

What do I do now?

 

[Rydian]

rydian is kinda telling you to do more than you have to.
i don't know why he's saying to defrag.

You've never had data corruption when resizing a partition that had data at the end of it, I see? Generally this is just something like the windows pagefile (which contains nothing of important when the computer isn't in windows, and can be safely replaced), but other times it's not. Depending on the drive's usage some important data could be placed at the end of a partition.

 

[tj_cool]

Defragging is definitely a must when shrinking partitions, so you should do that first.
(If possible, also make a backup of your most important/all data)

Anyway, instead of using the installer, do this:

Use System -> Administration -> GParted (Partition Editor)

Use that to shrink the sda2 partition (by about ~15-20GB).
Then format the new free space as EXT4.
Then Apply the changes.

Boot the installer and go back to that screen (Specify partitions manually)
Choose the ext4 parition on the end and click the Change button.
Use as: Ext 4 journaling File System
Format: No
Mount point: Type "/" (without the "")

 

[nutella]

Couldn't help but notice they removed the "Use largest continuous free space" option. I wonder why. That was always newbie friendly.

 

[.Chris]

Okay, now I completed all of the stuff, now after I completed a few steps, I get this:

But I cannot press "Forward"...

Any suggestions?

 

[nutella]

Your username cannot begin with an upper case letter.

 

[.Chris]

Thank you guys so much! I do appreciate your help!

My installed version of Windows XP became all "

", so I wanted to install Ubuntu to try to fix it.
Some of you had told me that Linux is more powerful than Windows XP, so I'm guessing that I should which.
I am still going to re-install Windows XP because the rest of my family is familiar with mostly any version of Windows, unlike me.

I am familiar with most Operating Systems, and all of you helped me answer some of my questions.
I would like to thank you again so much for all your help!!

 

[Deleted User]

Linux actually recognizes the difference between files as being named with an R or an r, it's something that's worth noting for future reference. You can also use many more alternative characters and markings in file-names that windows really doesn't like !@#$%^&* - those sorts of things.

I don't want to scare you or anything, but I've heard that it can be quite difficult to try to install Windows (XP, 7, Vista, whatever) as the 2nd operating system to Linux/Ubuntu, because the windows and grub bootloaders don't get along very well. If I remember correctly, it's something along the lines of that the Windows Bootloader is selfish (lol) and tends to overwrite the Grub Bootloader/master-boot record making the primary (Ubuntu/Linux) OS unusable.