Hard drive was partitioned when i got it?

Asked by Redneck

 I have windows vista on my computer right now. My hard drive looks this C: system, boot,PageFile,Active,crash dump,Primary Partition). And the then is Data D: (primary Partition).
 This was the way my computer came out of the box. Can i use the D primary partition for Ubuntu And still boot between the two? There is alot more Space with the D. primary partition. I have looked over enough stuff that i am confused and really do hate to bother people. Not sure what to do. Thank you for the help.

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Answered
For:
Ubuntu Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Dr Paul Brewer (drpaulbrewer) said :
#1

Here is a magazine article that addresses your problem:

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first.htm?page=1

Good Luck!
Paul

Revision history for this message
Redneck (sharp-shooter83) said :
#2

  That was very usefull But had one problem with my pile of an acer. It would only allow me to do 2991 for the shrink. I have 96 gigs free on my c. And Have called the manufacture about the D. which has nothing on it. Is there anything different if i were to go with wubi? As far as the regular uBuntu? If there is not i will just go ahead and install that.

Revision history for this message
Robinson Tryon (colonelqubit) said :
#3

> Is there anything different if i were to go with wubi?

If you're serious about using Ubuntu as an operating system, I'd suggest that you actually install it on a separate partition from Vista. Here's what wikipedia says about Wubi:

"The goal of the [Wubi] project is to assist a Windows user unacquainted with Linux in trying Ubuntu", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wubi_(installer)

So I'd really suggest that you install Ubuntu on a separate partition.

> It would only allow me to do 2991 for the shrink. I have 96 gigs free on my c.

Hmm. I don't have any experience with the Vista "shrink" tool, sorry. It's possible that if the drive isn't defragged then data is being stored toward the end of the partition, preventing you from shrinking off more than 3 MB of space.

Try defragging the drive and then doing the shrink part over again. (I'd suggest running *only* the defrag utility, and then *only* the shrink tool. Hopefully this will ensure that as little new data as possible is being written to the drive)

If that works, you should be all set. If not, you said that the D: drive has more space than the C drive, so you could try to defrag and shrink that drive instead.

The stock install of Ubuntu should only take a couple of GB for the system, but you'll obviously want free space to store your files. I'd suggest at least 20GB for the partition, increasing that number if you have a lot of video or music files you'd like to store on the Ubuntu side.

- Qubit

Revision history for this message
Tom (tom6) said :
#4

Yep, a proper install as described in this link

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

Note the special instructions for Vista users in Section 2 part 3. If you ave trouble booting up from a Cd then this guide might help
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromCD

I have a feeling that Acer One might be a netbook, without a cd drive in which case you might need to navigate to the download page and get the netbook remix rather than the standard desktop 32bit version of Ubuntu. Either should be good though

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask Redneck for more information if necessary.

To post a message you must log in.