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If Windows isn't already installed, install it first. If you leave space for Ubuntu at this step you don't have to resize your NTFS partition later.

Resizing Partitions Using the Ubuntu Installer

Note: There is an extremely helpful, detailed explanation of all steps to be found [http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p3.htm here].

1. Boot into Windows and backup any valuable documents/photos etc. onto removable media such as CD-R/DVD-R.
2. Run the Windows defragmentation tool on C:
3. Download and burn, or order a CD

   • [http://www.ubuntulinux.org/download/ List of Download Mirrors]

   • [http://shipit.ubuntulinux.org/ Order Ubuntu CDs] (currently free!)

4. Once you have the CD, insert it into your CD-ROM drive and reboot your PC.
   • If the computer does not boot from the CD (eg. Windows starts again instead), check your BIOS settings and fix as appropriate.
5. If successfully booted from CD, the Ubuntu logo will be displayed on the screen. Press Enter to continue.
6. Follow the prompts.
7. The installer will then detect your hard drives and load the disk partitioner.
   1. Choose "Manually edit partition table"
      • Listed will be your current partitions
   2. Select the partition you want to resize and press Enter.
   3. Select "Size:", press Enter.
   4. Select Yes, press Enter.
   5. Type in a new size in Gigabytes for your partition, it's recommended you free up AT LEAST 10 GB of free space for your Ubuntu install. Press Enter when happy with your changes. It may take some time to apply the changes.
   6. Create a swap partition of around 500 MB.
   7. Create a partition for your Ubuntu installation, at least 10 GB.
   8. Select "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk".
8. Finish installing your Ubuntu system.
9. On reboot, remove your Ubuntu cdrom from the cdrom drive, you should be presented with a list of operating systems to boot. Ubuntu should have automatically detected your Windows installation and added an option to boot it on this screen.

Issues with Windows XP and NTFS

Note: most current Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, do not support write-access to NTFS partitions; only read access is supported. Write-access is available through commercial packages or in some experimental open-source packages which may be risky to use. See ["NTFSReadWrite"] for more info.

Although the Ubuntu installer does now include support for resizing NTFS partitions, it is not 100% effective. If you try the above procedure and have no luck, try the following alternative method:

1. Boot into Windows and backup any valuable documents/photos etc onto removable media such as CD-R/DVD-R.
2. Run the Windows defragmentation tool on C:

3. [http://www.sysresccd.org/download.en.php Download the System Rescue CD ISO image] (100 MB; has several very useful software tools).

4. Burn the ISO image to a CD.
5. Boot from the CD and hit Enter when you see the message "Boot:".
6. When you get a command prompt, enter:

run_qtparted 

1. Select your disk on the graphical screen (most likely /dev/hda).
2. Select your NTFS partition to be resized (most likely /dev/hda1).
3. Right click with the mouse and choose Resize.
4. Set the new partition size.

5. Commit your changes in the File -> Commit menu. If your keyboard and mouse stop responding during resizing then please just be patient.

6. Once your changes are saved, remove the System Rescue CD and insert your Ubuntu installation CD.
7. Reboot and install Ubuntu into the free space.

No windows CD?

While the Ubuntu installer is very safe and can reliably partition your hard disk to allow you to dual boot, it may be a good idea to be able to restore your windows installation before you try to install Ubuntu.

Most systems which are delivered with windows already installed also come with some sort of recovery or reinstallation disk. There is a recent tendency for companies to try to save money and not ship such a disk. Instead, they provide you a hidden partition on which there is an image of the pre-installed system. A tool to re-write that image to disk is provided.

The problem with that is if your partition table becomes corrupt, or if you have hardware problem with your disk, recovery is not an option.

Example:

"Your new computer does not require an operating system CD or drivers CDs.  Instead, if you ever need to reinstall your software, use one of the following methods:

'snip'
support.dell.com/pcrt

What Solutions Are Available to Me if I Do Not Have My Microsoft® Windows® XP Operating System CD or the Dell Dimension™ or Inspiron™ Driver CDs?


Table of Contents
1. Run System Restore in Microsoft® Windows® XP.
2. Use the Dell DataSafe™ Backup
3. Use Norton Ghost 10
4. Run Dell™ PC Restore by Symantec to Restore Factory Default Software Settings
5. Dell OS Recovery CD Creation and Manual Operating System Reinstall"

The fifth option "Dell OS Recovery Cd creation" tool is no longer available.

The solution is to telephone your vendor and ask for a proper CD. My experience with Dell was pleasant. It took less than ten seconds for the customer service representative to offer to send me such a cd for free. They must get asked for that a lot.

If you are buying a new computer and intend on dual-booting, perhaps it would be a good idea to enquire if you can get an OS install cd, if one is not provided by default.

According to the Dell EULA as well as the microsoft EULA, you are entitled to a backup copy of your OS. While your vendor is not really obliged to provide you with one, having such image tools pre-installed on your computer in no way prohibits you from obtaining a proper backup of your installation cd. You can remove the restore-image tools from your computer at any time, although ubuntu can happily be installed alongside them and keep them intact.

CategoryHardware