How can I have Ubuntu notebook 10.04LTS and XP on the same system. Do I have to create a new partition for Ubuntu note book?

Asked by Reginald W. Taylor

Hi all,
I want to install ubuntu Note book 10.04 LTS on my laptop which already has XP on it. Do I have to make a separate partition for Ubuntu? what's the safest way to have dual OS boot without messing my XP installtion?

Please advise,

Teck1

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Alex L.
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Alex L. (alexal) said :
#1

Dual-Booting Windows and Ubuntu

Rarely, a user may experience problems dual-booting Ubuntu and Windows. In general, a Windows OS should be installed first, because its bootloader is very particular. A Windows installation usually occupies the entire hard drive, so the partition needs to be shrunk, creating free space for the Ubuntu partition. (You should clean up unnecessary files and defragment the drive before resizing.) See changing the Windows partition size.
After shrinking the Windows partition, you should reboot once into Windows prior to installing Ubuntu or further manipulating the partitions. This allows the Windows system to automatically rescan the newly-resized partition (using chkdsk) and write changes to its own bootup files. (If you forget to do this, you may later have to repair the Windows partition bootup files manually using the Windows Recovery Console.)
If done this way, there is no problem installing Ubuntu as the second operating system and it is done automatically from the Ubuntu LiveCD. Allow the Ubuntu LiveCD to install to "largest available free space."
A Windows partition should be at least 20 Gb (recommended 30 Gb for Vista/Windows 7), and a Ubuntu partition at least 10 Gb (recommended 20 Gb). Obviously, if you have plenty of disk space, make the partition for whichever will be your favoured operating system larger. For a recommended partitioning scheme, see this section.

More information you can get on this page: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Lucid#Dual-Booting_Windows_and_Ubuntu

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Alex L. (alexal) said :
#2

Also, please read information on this page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

Cheers
Alex

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Best Alex L. (alexal) said :
#3

Alex L. suggests this article as an answer to your question:
FAQ #65: “Dual Booting windows and *buntu”.

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Reginald W. Taylor (all4reggie) said :
#4

Thanks Alex L., that solved my question.

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Reginald W. Taylor (all4reggie) said :
#5

Thanks Alex. I planned to install Ubuntu on my second partition which don't have XP on it. XP is on the 1st Partition. both are 53 GB

I hope this will be OK

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Alex L. (alexal) said :
#6

You are welcome